legs power to resist the strain which is produced by moving upon irregular surfaces*. The elephant is indeed found in the neighbourhood of mountainous ranges; and, under the command of man, certainly ascends rocky passes, bearing a considerable weight: but that such a service is a violation of his natural habits is evident from the fact that in these situations he is liable to fall backward, not having that power of resistance in his hind-legs which enables many other quadrupeds to move in safety over craggy ground. Bernier, in his amusing "Travels in the Mogul Empire," indeed, states that, "though heavy and unwieldy, these animals are yet sure-footed, feeling their way when the road is difficult and dangerous, and assuring themselves of the firm hold of one foot before they move another t." But this very caution indicates that the elephant is placed in an unnatural situation when he is required to ascend craggy steeps, and that his great sagacity alone enables him to overcome the difficulty. Bernier himself describes a remarkable accident which he witnessed, proceeding from this mode of compelling the elephant to a labour for which he is unfitted by nature:-"The King (Aurengzebe) was ascending the Peer-Punchal mountains, and from which a distant view of the kingdom of Kashmire is first obtained. He was followed by a long line of elephants, upon which sat the ladies in mik-dembers and amaris. The foremost, appalled, as is supposed, by the great length and acclivity of the path before him, stepped back upon the elephant that was moving in his track; who again pushed against the third elephant, the third against the fourth, and so on until fifteen of them, incapable of turning round or extricating them

* See Home's Comparative Anatomy, vol. i. p. 95.
Bernier's Travels, translated by Brock, vol. ii. p. 129,
Seats, with canopies.

selves in a road so steep and narrow, fell down the precipice. Happily for the women, the place where they fell was of no great height; only three or four were killed; but there were no means of saving any of the elephants. Whenever these animals fall under the immense burthen usually placed upon their backs, they never rise again, even on a good road. Two days afterwards we passed that way, and I observed that some of the poor elephants still moved their trunks*"

The peculiarity of the progressive movement of the elephant is generally attributed to the weight of his body; and it is so different from the motion of other animals with which we are familiar, that we are in the

habit of hastily calling the conformation which produces it a deformity. We "cannot allow that it is deformed, since those due proportions, laid down by the Author of Nature, are as well observed in this, as in any other animal; for nothing can be deformed but what swerves from a general rule." To illustrate these proportions, we have had a drawing made of the skeleton of the elephant which was shot at Exeter Change. This skeleton, which is admirably preserved, has been set up with great skill at the Museum of the London University.

To understand the progressive motion of the elephant, it will be desirable to compare the bones of his legs with those of the horse. For this object we add a representation of the skeleton of the latter. It will be obvious that, without reckoning the

joint which unites the hoof, the horse has three bones in the leg,-the elephant has two. For this reason the horse moves with an elastic pace, while the elephant has a grave and stiff progression;and this want of elasticity renders it disagreeable to ride on him for any distance. It will be evident also, from an inspection of the two skeletons, why the horse, in kneeling, brings his hind-legs under his body, while those of the elephant go behind him, exactly in the same way as man kneels.

The legs of the elephant are supported upon broad hoofs, each terminated, in the adult animal, by five nails. The whole number of nails is seldom developed on the hind feet. The author of Oriental Field Sports says, "To please a native, there should be five on each fore-foot, and four on each hind foot: odd numbers are considered by them as unlucky*. I have known some with fifteen nails, which no native would purchase; and I have heard of one with twenty but I do not recollect seeing one with more than eighteen." The sole of an elephant's foot is nearly circular; and in one of eight feet high is about twelve inches in diameter.

Supported, then, upon these solid pillars, an elephant moves forward in search of food. His diet is wholly vegetable. The intestines are formed upon the same principle as in the horse. It has been observed by Sir Everard Home, that "the colon in animals that live upon the same species of food is of a greater length in proportion to the scantiness of the supply. Among quadrupeds this may be illustrated by the length of the colon in the elephant being only twenty feet six inches, while in the dromedary it is forty-two. The first inhabits the fertile woods of Asia; the latter the arid deserts of

This is almost the only exception to the universal faith in odd numbers.

Arabia" Many other" remarkable facts and striking analogies make it clear that some process goes on in the colon, from which a secondary supply of nourishment is produced." The elephant, from the simple construction of his stomach and intestines, which require frequent supplies-from the great quantity of food which he consumes for his ordinary support-from the waste which is necessarily produced by the weight and bulk of his body-and from the conformation by which he is fitted to move upon level ground,-is evidently the natural inhabitant of rich plains where vegetation attains its utmost luxuriance, where the grass of the green savannas is ever kept fresh by perennial springs, and where the woods never cease to offer him their succulent shoots, which he delights to crop with his "lithe proboscis." A passage in Job which, principally upon the authority of Bochart, has been applied to the hippopotamus, is considered by many learned commentators as referring to the elephant. The following words certainly describe, with great accuracy, the natural haunts of the elephant: "He lieth under the shady trees, in the covert of the reed, and fens. The shady trees cover him with their shadow; the willows of the brook compass him about t." Thus, then, in

"the flowery lap

Of some irriguous valley," the elephant has to seek his daily food. But how is he to crop the store which nature has provided for him? The head of the horse is attached to his neck by a flexible series of vertebræ, which he can move at his pleasure; which he can arch in a graceful curve when he is proud and delighted, or throw upward with inflated nostrils when he is angry; by which he can graze without depressing his legs, or *Comparative Anatomy, vol. i. p. 470. † Job, xl. 21, 22,