muscles, may assist this operation: it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, otherwise to understand how the animal can eject the liquid from his mouth by his breath, while he is drinking at the same instant. It is an error of some writers who state, that the large cavity of the head is a reservoir for the liquid which the animal takes up in his trunk:-it is held in his trunk by the action of his breath, but no part can pass beyond the sudden curve of the channels into the nostrils themselves, and thence into the head. When the elephant ejects the water from the trunk to the mouth, a gurgling sound is produced by the passage of the air; the lips are motionless.

As an organ of touch, the proboscis of the elephant is exquisitely fine. Elephants sometimes go blind; and, under that privation, the poor animal can not only collect its food, and discriminate as to its quality, by this wonderful instrument, but can travel, without much difficulty, over unequal ground, avoiding lumps and hollows, and stepping over ditches. The creature, under such circumstances, rarely touches the ground with its trunk; but, projecting it forward as far as possible, lets the finger, which is curled inward to protect the nostrils, skim along the surface, to the inequalities of which this organ adjusts itself with wonderful exactness *.

The great care of the elephant, whether he be in a state of nature, or under the control of man, is invariably to put his trunk out of harm, as far as he can, when any danger presents itself. If he is attacked by a tiger, or any other wild animal, he carries his trunk as high as he can in the air; and if this delicate organ be in the slightest degree injured, the elephant becomes wild with rage and terror. He is even afraid of a dead tiger, and carefully puts his trunk out of reach. The instinct by which the creature defends and preserves this precious instrument, is in proportion to its paramount importance. Mr. Williamson saw an elephant whose trunk had been cut through with a bill-hook; and though the wound was healed, the animal was perfectly helplessunable to supply its own food, and incapable of even travelling without danger. He was fed with bundles of grass, which were put into his mouth; had he been in a state of nature, he must have perished. An affecting example of the instinct with which the elephant preserves his trunk, is exhibited in the death of the poor animal who was burnt at Dublin, *See Williamson, p. 78,

The author of the Anatomical Account says"Doubtless the elephant's care to preserve the proboscis was great; for when we dissected him we found it thrust near two feet into a very hard ground; upon which account we thought it had been burnt, till the head was divided from the body, and then we found it kept fast to the ground by the proboscis."

The care with which the elephant endeavours to put his trunk out of danger makes him extremely cautious of using it as a weapon. He rarely strikes with it; though he will frequently throw clods and stones with it at objects which he dislikes. Elephants often thus attack hogs, casting their missiles with tolerable force and precision *. This fact is a confirmation of Busbec's account of the animal playing at ball. One of the elephants in the Jardin des Plantes is extremely expert at playing with a log of wood, which it will often do, to the great amusement of the crowd.

The power of crossing rivers must be essential to the existence of the elephant in a state of nature; for the quantity of food which a herd of elephants consume renders it necessary that they should be constantly moving from place to place. The elephant crosses a stream in two ways. If the bed of the river is hard, and the water not of too great a depth, he fords it. It is a matter of indifference to him whether his body be completely immersed in the water; for as long as he can bring the tip of his trunk to the surface, so as to breathe the external air, he is safe. But the elephant will require to cross the largest rivers as well as the smallest brooks, in his search for food; and it may even be requisite for him to pass such mighty waters as the Ganges and the Niger. The elephant swims deep-so deep that the

* Williamson.

end of his trunk only is out of the water. With this instrument for breathing, he trusts himself fearlessly to his native rivers. In a state of captivity, he is somewhat more cautious; although a well-trained elephant will readily swim, or wade with his driver on his back. This situation is, however, sometimes one of danger to the rider; for the animal, regardless of the mohout, whom he has completely in his power, will sink his body greatly below the surface, having this faculty of breathing through the end of his trunk; and then the frightened driver has no resource but to stand upon his back.

CHAPTER III.

THE STRUCTURE OF THE ELEPHANT, EXHIBITED IN CONNEXION WITH ITS NATURAL HABITS ;-CONTINUED.

THE Construction of the elephant's head indicates that its scent is remarkably acute. Anatomists point out the excellence of its organ of smelling, in the complicated formation of the ethmoid bone, and the largeness of the frontal sinuses *. As elephants live in troops, and yet must often disperse for the collection of their food, it is a necessary condition of their existence that they should have such an acuteness in the organs of smelling and hearing, as will enable them to gather together without diffi culty. These organs are of more importance to them than that of sight; for in thick woods and high jungles, in which they generally abound, the eye would avail little in directing them to particular spots, either for food or society. The eye of the elephant is unusually small. This comparatively diminutive size of the eye assists in its protection from injury amidst the bushes where he seeks his food;-and it is provided with a nictitating membrane, by which he is enabled to free it from all small noxious substances, such as broken leaves and insects. Small as the eye is, it is by no means an imperfect organ; although he cannot direct its range above the level of his head. The trunk supplies the deficiency;-and the sense of smelling directs the organ of touch to such food as * See Lawrence's and Coulson's Translation of Blumenbach,

p. 272,