IMPORTANCE OF THE TRUNK. 
247 
as possible. If he is attacked by a lion, or other 
wild beast, he carries his trunk as high in the air as 
he can, and if this delicate organ is in the slightest 
degree' injured, the animal becomes wild with rage 
and terror. The instinct by which the creature de¬ 
fends and preserves this precious instrument is in 
proportion to its paramount importance. Mr. 
Williamson saw an elephant whose trunk had been 
cut through with a bill-hook, and though the wound 
was healed the animal was perfectly helpless—un¬ 
able to procure its own food, and incapable of tra¬ 
velling without danger. He was fed with bundles 
of grass, which were put into his mouth; had 
he been in a state of nature he must have 
perished. 
An affecting example of the instinct with which 
the elephant preserves his trunk was exhibited in the 
death of the poor animal which was burnt in Dublin. 
The author of the anatomical account says:— 
“ Doubtless the elephant’s care to preserve his pro¬ 
boscis was great; for, when we dissected him, we 
found it thrust near two feet into very hard ground ; 
upon which account we thought it had been burnt 
till the head was divided from the body, and then 
we found it kept fast by the proboscis.” 
The elephant is extremely cautious of using his 
trunk as a weapon. It is on his formidable tusks 
that he chiefly relies, whether acting on the offen¬ 
sive or defensive; but he will not unfrequently throw 
clods and stones with his trunk at objects which he 
dislikes. Elephants often thus attack hogs, casting 
these missiles with tolerable force and precision 
