NATURAL DISPOSITION. 
261 
The elephant’s scent is also remarkably acute, 
as is indicated, according to naturalists, by the 
formation of the animal’s head. To the acuteness 
of this sense I myself can personally testify, and 
my experiences are fully borne out by my friend, 
Frederick Green, who, in a note to me, says :— 
“ Elephants will detect where a man may have 
passed for many hours after, by the scent left with 
the impression of his foot. I have also known 
elephants to flee from man when at a distance of 
three miles at least, having detected the presence 
of the human species by their scent, the wind blowing 
in this quarter at the time.” 
The eye of the elephant is unusually small. Its 
comparatively diminutive size contributes to its 
protection from injury amidst the bushes where 
he seeks his food, and it is provided with a nictating 
membrane, by which he is enabled to free it from 
all small noxious substances, such as broken leaves 
and insects. Small as the eye is, it is by no means 
an imperfect organ, although he cannot direct its 
range above the level of the head. 
The natural disposition of the elephant would 
seem to be mild and docile, as may be partly in¬ 
ferred from the great facility with which, after 
capture, he may be domesticated. That he is so, 
is a merciful as well as wise dispensation; for if 
he had possessed a ferocity equal to his powers, he 
must have exterminated a very large part of the 
animal creation. 
“ Calm amid scenes of havoc, in his own 
Huge strength impregnable, the Elephant 
