CHAPTER IV 
THE ELEPHANT [continued) 
The experience of modern practice has hardly 
decided the vexed question “ whether the African 
species is more difficult to train than the gentle 
elephant of Asia.” In a wild state there can be 
no doubt that the African is altogether a different 
animal both in appearance and in habits; it is vastly 
superior in size, and although of enormous bulk, it 
is more active and possesses greater speed than the 
Asiatic variety. Not only is the marked difference 
in shape a distinguishing peculiarity,—the hollow 
back, the receding front, the great size of the ears,— 
but the skin is rougher, and more decided in the 
bark-like appearance of its texture. 
The period of gestation is considered to be the 
same as the Asiatic elephant, about twenty-two 
months, but this must be merely conjecture, as there 
has hitherto been no actual proof. My own experi¬ 
ence induces me to believe that the African elephant 
is more savage, and although it may be tamed and 
rendered docile, it is not so dependable as the 
Asiatic. Only last year I saw an African female 
