45S 
& 
E L E P H A S. 
“ The approach of the feafon of love,”- argue thefe 
writers, “ is very eafily known, becaufe for fome days 
before it happens, an oily liquor is feen to flow from a 
fmall hole on each fide the head, in both fexes. The 
domeflic female on thefe occafions fometimes makes her 
efcape, and joins .the wild males in the 1 woods. Some 
days afterward her cornack or keeper goes in qtieft of 
her, and calls her by her name till (lie comes. She fub- 
mits to him with complacence, and'allows herfelf to be 
conducted home, and fiiut up in the rtable. From cafes 
•of this kind, it has been afcertained, that the female ele¬ 
phant brings forth-at the end of nine months.” This 
opinion was alfo adopted by Mr. Pennant, becaufe he ap¬ 
peared to have no better information. See Encyclopaedia 
Britannica, vol.'vj. p. 549, 550, &c. 
But the advances recently made in feience and litera¬ 
ture have not only detected thefe impofitions, but have 
afforded likewife the mod fatisfadtory accounts of the 
natural hiftory and economy of this noble animal. In the 
“ Anatomique d'un Elephant ,” by Peter Camper, profefl’or 
of anatomy in the Athenium of Amfterdam, publifhed at 
Paris, in folio, in 1802, with twenty fuperb engravings, 
the phyfiology of the elephant is clearly defined. The 
information derived from this fource, is likewife confide- 
rably aided by “ Obfervations on the Manners, Habits, 
and Natural Hiftory, of the Elephant,” by John Corfe, 
efq. publifhed in the Tranfaftions of the Royal Society 
of London for 1799 ; and to whom the world is indebted 
for the preceding account of the method of taking wfild 
elephants. By a refidence of more than ten years in 
Bengal, and by having the elephant-hunters for five years 
under his abfolute direftion, viz. from 1792 to 1797, he 
was peculiarly qualified to render the fubjeft of this 
article particularly interefting and inftrudtive. 
“ The elephant (fays Mr. Corfe) has been declared to 
poflefs the fentiment of modefty in a high degree ; and, 
by fome, his fagacity was fuppofed to excite feelings for 
the lofs of liberty, fo acute, as to caufe him to refufe to 
propagate hi.fpecies while in flavery, left he fhould en¬ 
tail on his p; ogeny a fate limilar to his own ; whilft others 
have afierted, that he loft the power of procreation in the 
domeftic ftate. So circumftanced, I was defirous of taking 
advantage of my fituation, and of making fuch experi¬ 
ments and obfervations, as might tend to render more 
perfefl the natural hiftory of this ufeful animaj. The 
young of the elephant, at its birth, is about thirty-five 
inches high ; and, as a knowledge of its progreflive 
growth forms the beft criterion by which we can judge 
of the age of this animal, I (hall here note fome obferva¬ 
tions made on this fubjeft, till the elephant lias attained 
its full’ fize ; for, after this period, till figns of old age 
appear, I do not know any marks by which a tolerable 
guefs can be made of the number of its years, unlefs we 
could examine the teeth accurately ; and, even then, there 
would be much uncertainty. The following obferva¬ 
tions, of the gradual increafe of growth, were made up¬ 
on a young elephant belonging to Mr. Stephen Harris, 
which was accurately meafured from time to time, and 
upon a female elephant of my own, till I left Tiperah. 
Mr. Harris’s elephant, at its birth, October 16, 1789, was 
thirty-five inches high. 
Feet. Inches. 
In one year he grew ix inches, and w'as 
In the 2d year 8 
In the 3d year 6 . 
In the 4th yeah 5 
In the 5th year 5. 
In the 6th year 3 \ . 
In the 7th year 2|. 
3 10 high. 
4 6 
5 ° 
5 5 
5 i° 
6 if 
6 4 
“ Except during his fourth and fifth years, the above 
xneafurement fiiews a gradual decreafe in the proportion 
tofgrowth for every year; and there was no opportunity 
of tracing, the growth of this elephant farther than its 
feventh year. Another elephant, fix. feet nine inches 
high at the time flie came into my pofleftion, was fup- 
pofed to be fourteen years old ; but, as the accuracy of 
the hunters cannot be depended on, it will be proper to 
take Mr. Harris’s elephant, whofe age is exactly known, 
as a ftandard ; and, judging.from its annual increafe, this 
will lead vis to confider the elephant, at the time I re¬ 
ceived her, to be only eleven years old ; giving a period 
of four years, for the addition of five inches. I have 
made a greater allowance of time, on account of this ele¬ 
phant being a female, and Mr. Harris’s a male, which 
there is much reafon to believe grows fafter. 
“ During the next five years, before fhe was covered, 
file grew only fix inches ; but, what is extremely curious, 
while pregnant, Ihe grew, in twenty-one months, five 
inches; and, in the following feventeen months, though 
again pregnant, file grew only half an inch ; at which 
time flie was fent from Comillah, as I was then preparing 
to leave India. At this time (lie was about nineteen 
years old, and had, perhaps; attained her full growth. 
Her young one was then (November 1796) not twenty 
months old ; yet he was four feet five inches and a half 
high, having grown eighteen inches fince his birth ; which 
is the greateft progreflive growth, in the elephant, that I 
have known. Thefe obfervations, when applied to the 
general growth of elephants, are to be taken with fome 
allowance; fince, during the ftate of the firft pregnancy, 
there is fo great an irregularity in the growth of female 
elephants, as alone occafions confiderable difficulty, even 
fuppofing the progreflive growth nearly equal in the (pe- 
cies. It is probable, however, that this is not by any 
means equal ; for, as elephants vary greatly in fize; and 
as males are generally much taller than females, we muft 
conclude they either grow fafter, or are longer in attain¬ 
ing their full growth. But it may be fufely afierted, 
that elephants, like mod quadrupeds, propagate their 
fpecies. before they have acquired their full growth. 
Many females have been known, when taken while preg¬ 
nant, to have grown feveral inches higher before de¬ 
livery; and, as it has been dated, that the female ele- 
■phant on which my obfervations were made, could not 
exceed fixteen years when (lie received the male, it is 
probable the wild female elephants are in heat before 
that period. 
“ If, from the above data, it may be allowed to form 
a probable conjedture, elephants attain their full fize be¬ 
tween eighteen and twenty-four years of age. The height 
of the elephant, I believe, has been often much exagge¬ 
rated. In India, the height of females is, in general, 
from feven to eight feet; and that of males, from eight 
to ten feet, meafured at the fhoulder. I have never 
heard but of one elephant, on good authority, that much 
exceeded ten feet; this w'as a male belonging to Afoph 
ul Dowlah, vizier of Oude. His dimenfions were as fol¬ 
low : meafured on the 18th of June, 1796. 
Feet. Inch. 
From foot to foot, over the (boulder ... 22 iof 
From the top of the fhoulder, perpendicular 
height.10 6 
From the top of the head, when fet up, as he 
ought to march in ftate.12 2 
From the front of the face to the infertion of 
the tail. . . . . 15 11 
“ Captain Sandys, of the Bengal eftablifiiment, (hewed 
me a lift of about one hundred and fifty elephants, of 
which he had the management during the war with Tip- 
poo Sultaun, in Myfore, and not one of them was ten 
feet, and only a few males nine feet and a half high. I 
was very particular in afcertaining the height of the ele¬ 
phants employed at Madras, and with the army under 
marquis Cornwallis, where there were both Ceylon and 
Bengal elephants; and I have been aflured, that thofe of 
Ceylon were neither higher, norfuperyor, in any refpedt, 
to thofe of Bengal. 
“ The Madras elephants have been faid. to be from 
feventeen 
