92 A DESCRIPTION OF 
destined to live on grass and the tender shoots of trees. 
This noble creature bears in state on his back the poten- 
tates of the East, and seems to delight in the pompous 
pageantry of Hindostan : in war he carries a tower rilled 
with archers ; and in a domestic state lends his assistance 
to all who require it. The female is said to go a year with 
young, and to bring forth one at a time. The Elephant 
lives a hundred and twenty or a hundred and thirty 
years. 
The greatest wonder the Elephant presents to the admi- 
ration of the intelligent observer of nature is his proboscis, 
or trunk, composed of elastic rings to the extent of six or 
eight feet, and so flexible that he uses it as dexterously as 
a man does his hand. It was erroneously said, that the 
Elephant could receive nourishment through his trunk ; 
this sort of pipe is nothing but a prolongation to the snout, 
for the purpose of breathing, into which the animal can, 
by the strength of his lungs, draw up a great quantity of 
water or other liquid, which he spouts again, or brings 
back to his mouth by inverting and shortening his probo- 
scis for this purpose. 
Captain Marryat, in his very entertaining work called 
Masterman Ready, relates a curious instance of the saga- 
city of an Elephant in India, which had fallen into a deep 
tank. The tank was so deep that it was impossible to 
hoist the Elephant up, but when the people threw down 
several bundles of faggots, the sagacious animal laid one 
bundle above another, always standing on each tier as he 
arranged it, till at last he raised the pile high enough to 
allow him to walk out of the tank. 
