trunk is shortened it is thickened; and when it is lengthened it is rendered thin: and the only difference between these operations, and the production of the same changes in an elastic tube of Indian rubber, consists in the moving force of the trunk being in the organ itself, and distributed amongst the almost infinite number of muscles which that organ contains. In this way, the force is multiplied by the action of the will of the animal upon a vast number of points; and although the bellying of a few muscles may scarcely produce any visible motion, the repetition of the same action by many thousand muscles will effect that sudden extension which appeared so wonderful to the Dublin anatomist. The difficulty there may have been in comprehending the peculiarity of the action of the trunk is not surprising, when we consider that the instrument is altogether constructed upon principles different from common muscular action; and that the power of the mechanism is balanced by an almost infinite number of these small muscles, not more than the twelfth of an inch each in thickness.

The extent of the command which the animal possesses of his trunk, may be estimated from the fact, which Cuvier has ascertained, that the muscles of this organ which have the power of distinct action, are not far short of forty thousand. We need not therefore be surprised, if this instrument be strong enough to tear up a tree, and delicate enough to seize a pin. There is no animal structure in the least like the trunk of the elephant; but though the mechanism is unique, it is altogether complete for its purposes.

The trunk of the elephant is terminated, as is well known, by an extremely flexible prolongation of the muscles, destined to seize whatever the animal desires. This may be considered his finger. Opposed to this is a sort of thumb, which enables him to hold fast the object which he wishes to take up. Between the finger and thumb are the extremities of the nostrils.

There is some difference in the external appearance of the extremity of the trunk of the male and female elephant. The following cuts are from drawings made by Houel, from the male and female elephants of the Jardin des Plantes :

Extremities of the proboscis. A, of the male; B, of the female. The trunk of the elephant may be first regarded as an instrument for collecting his food. He feeds upon all vegetable substances, from the leaves of trees and the coarsest grass, to the most farinaceous grain and the choicest fruit. Though his enormous bulk, requiring that his provender shall be in large quantity, renders a plentiful supply of the commoner vegetable productions necessary to him, yet his palate is pleased with delicacies. For this reason the strength and the minute touch of his proboscis are equally available in the collection of his daily supplies. If he meet with long herbage, he twists his trunk spirally round the roots and crops them off.

The bundle which he gathers is then held between what we have called the finger and thumb of the trunk, and is thus conveyed to the mouth :

If the objects which he is collecting are too small to repay him for the trouble of carrying them to his mouth, he holds them one by one behind his thumb, till he has gathered enough for a load. Thus, if he find a small root, he seldom eats it at once, but collects two or three, holding each in the following man

When the object which he wants requires force for its removal, or is difficult to reach, he completely curls his trunk, thus

and in this way, elevating himself upon his hinder legs, he pulls down the tall branches of the trees of the forests which are his natural domain *.

The mode in which the elephant conveys his food to his mouth will be best understood by the following representation, which shews the animal reaching upward with his trunk. He has no power to apply his mouth to the food to be taken, (with the single exception of the mode in which the young elephant sucks); and therefore, whether he gather the supply

*The cut, representing this, is from M, Houel's work,

below or above his head, the substance gathered is introduced into his mouth by the inward flexure of the proboscis. The food then receives its due mastication*.

A country full of succulent plants, and plentifully supplied with showers and pools, is the natural abode of the elephant. Copious draughts of water are necessary to his existence. His trunk is the instrument by which he collects his liquid sustenance. By drawing in his breath he receives the necessary supply into the channels of his trunk, and, when he pleases, discharges it into his mouth. Perhaps a partial contraction of the diameter of the tubes of the trunk, which Cuvier has shewn to be a necessary consequence of the formation of one set of the transverse *See chap. iii.