104 
ELEPHANT. 
forests line the sides of rivers, large herds of ele- 
phants are to be met with in their wildest state ; 
the savage inhabitants of that dreary country being 
more careful to avoid their fury than anxious to 
render them useful. In the civilized parts of Asia, 
on the contrary, the people, well aware of the 
many services this creature can afford them, spare 
no pains to domesticate him ; and have generally 
the satisfaction to find their endeavours repaid by 
an animal, who becomes as tractable as he is grate- 
ful. 
The opinion of Aristotle, that the female ele- 
phant goes two years with young, has lately been 
confirmed by the intelligent Mr. Corse, who in- 
forms us that an elephant brought forth a young 
one twenty-one months and three days after she 
was taken : therefore she must have been pregnant 
at that time, though it was too early to be per- 
ceived. The young one, a male, was born Octo- 
ber l6, 1789, and was thirty-five inches high. It 
may be proper to observe in this place, that young 
elephants suck constantly with their mouths, and 
never with their trunks, as Buffon has asserted ; a 
conclusion he made merely from conjecture. “ I 
have seen young ones,” says Mr. Corse, u from 
one day to three years old, sucking their dams ; 
but never saw them use their trunks, except to 
press the breast, which by natural instinct they 
seemed to know would make the milk flow more 
readily.” 
Elephants are generally measured at the shoulder, 
