ELEPHANTS. 
529 
Colour The general colour of the skin is blackish grey, but there are 
frequently flesh-coloured mottlings on the forehead, the root of the 
trunk, and the ears. Occasionally so-called white elephants are met with, which 
are really albinos; the dark pigment being absent from a larger or smaller area of 
the skin; in Burma and Siam such albinos being highly valued, and considered as 
sacred or royal animals. Although, as already mentioned, the skin is nearly 
naked, it has a few sparsely - scattered hairs; and it has been quite recently 
discovered that there are faint remnants of a woolly fur, similar to that so fully 
developed in the extinct mammoth. This discovery is very important, since, taken 
in connection with the Indian elephant’s well-known intolerance of heat, it 
indicates that the animal is descended from one inhabiting temperate or cold 
climates. 
As in the case of most large animals, the height of the Indian 
Dimensions. 0 
elephant has been greatly exaggerated; but the tendency of recent 
observers has been rather to depreciate the maximum size which it may occasionally 
attain. On the average, the height of the adult male does not exceed 9 feet, 
and that of the female 8 feet; but these dimensions are occasionally considerably 
exceeded. Sanderson measured a male standing 9 feet 7 inches at the shoulder, 
and measuring 26 feet 2f inches from the tip of the trunk to the extremity of the 
tail; and he records others respectively reaching 9 feet 8 inches and 9 feet 10 
inches at the shoulder. An elephant shot by General Kinloch stood upwards of 
10 feet 1 inch; and another measured by Sanderson 10 feet 74 inches. These 
dimensions are, however, exceeded by a specimen killed by the late Sir Victor 
Brooke, which is reported to have reached a height of 11 feet; and there is a 
rumour of a Ceylon elephant of 12 feet. That such giants may occasionally exist 
is indicated by a skeleton in the Museum at Calcutta, which is believed to have 
belonged to an individual living between 1856 and 1860 in the neighbourhood of 
the Rajmehal Hills, in Bengal. As now mounted, this enormous skeleton stands 
11 feet 3 inches at the shoulders, but Mr. O. S. Fraser, in a letter to the Asian 
newspaper, states that it is made to stand too low, and that its true height was 
several inches more. If this be so, there can be no doubt that, when alive, 
this elephant must have stood fully 12 feet. It may be added that the height 
of an Indian elephant is almost precisely twice the circumference of its fore¬ 
foot. 
With regard to the maximum weight of this species, we have no information. 
An immature male of 8 feet in height weighed, however, 2 tons 17 cwt. 1 qr. 
and 25 lbs.; while a second, of 7| feet in height, turned the scale at 2 tons 
11 cwt. and 23 lbs. 
The tusks of the male vary greatly in length and weight. A pair obtained 
by Mr. Sanderson measured 5 feet along the curve, with a girth of 16 inches at 
the point of emergence from the jaw, their weight being 74J lbs. The single 
perfect tusk of the elephant referred to above as having been killed by Sir V. 
Brooke measured 8 feet in length, and nearly 17 inches in circumference, and 
weighed 90 lbs. This weight is, however, exceeded by a shorter tusk of about 
6 feet in length, which reached 100 lbs. ; and specimens obtained from the Garo 
Hills are reported to have respectively weighed 155 and 157 lbs. 
vol . 11.—34 
