VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
71 
You know that a camel rises to the upright position by extend¬ 
ing his hind limbs first; well, the sagacious elephant places the 
bend of his trunk behind the rump of the camel, and pushes 
him forwards and upwards, until the fear of what may follow 
rouses the animal up. 
As regards the elephant itself I may here observe, en passant, 
that he is the only one of the Herbivora w r ho, in assuming a re¬ 
cumbent position, goes down on his elbows and stretches his 
forearm out in front of him, doubling his hind limb at the stifle 
and stretching it straight behind him, and, in rising, raises his 
fore extremity first and then the hinder. 
From the peculiar anatomy or construction of the elephant it 
is very evident he is more adapted for weight-carrying than for 
draught; and although we see him harnessed in various ways to 
loads, it is plainly to be noticed that it is more by his own pon¬ 
derous weight that he is able to move the load than by the exer¬ 
tion of the muscles of his limbs (as in the case of the horse). He 
cannot throw his weight forwards on the fore part of his feet, like 
other draught animals, because they are not formed by nature to 
resist such pressure. 
We know that, by the agency of his large and powerful jaws, 
assisted by his trunk, he can draw very heavy loads, and also 
move ponderous substances by butting with his forehead; but 
the work he performs in this manner is very limited, and it soon 
tires him. I cannot enter into particulars now to demonstrate 
this fact, but will only add that where I have seen elephants used 
for dragging heavy beams of timber through a forest, five miles a 
day has been considered a good day's work, and this not con¬ 
tinuous, but with a good deal of resting at different times. Even 
when aided by mechanical contrivances, such as wheels, rollers, 
&c., the elephant can only draw such weights, as guns, waggons, 
&c., with difficulty over level roads, and that with a necessity of 
resting at every fifty yards or so. 
But let the weight to be transported be shifted to his back, 
and he will carry it with ease, making journies over decent roads, 
and in weather not too warm, of from fifteen to twenty miles a 
day, and keep this Up for a continuous period of time. Indeed, 
experience has shown that a full-grown elephant, in good health, 
can carry a weight of fifteen to sixteen hundred pounds, day after 
day continuously, travelling fifteen or twenty miles a day. During 
the late campaign in Abyssinia, the loads actually carried by the 
elephants ranged from fourteen to eighteen hundred pounds, and 
even more. 
The “mortar elephants" carried eighteen hundred and forty- 
four pounds, but Chumpa , the ammunition elephant, I believe, 
carried much nearer two thousand. And let it be noted that 
