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The most striking difference of each species is, however, exhibited in the dimensions of the ears. In the Indian elephant the ear is of a moderate size; in the African it is enormous, and covers the shoulder. In the cabinet of the King of Denmark there is the ear of an elephant, shot at the Cape of Good Hope in 1675, which is three feet and a half long, by two feet and a half wide. Mr. Pringle

informs us that it is not uncommon in Southern Africa to see the natives using the ear of an elephant as a sort of truck, upon which they drag manure, and other loads.

CHAPTER IV.

THE INDIAN ELEPHANT. FERTILITY IN A STATE OF CONFINEMENT. GROWTH. MODES OF TAKING WILD ELEPHANTS IN ASIA.

WE have already noticed the assertion of Elian, that elephants were bred at Rome; and Columella, a writer on rural affairs, distinctly says, "within our own walls (Rome) we have seen elephants born *.” In India it was thought unlucky to allow tame elephants to breed; but the Emperor Akber overcame this scruplet. The custom, however, evidently went into disuse; for Tavernier, and other oriental travellers, were not only ignorant of the fact, but expressly asserted that the circumstance never took place. Upon this inaccurate information many writers on natural history founded a theory that the proud elephant refused to multiply slaves for the use of man. The experiments of Mr. Corse have, however, completely set this question at rest; and though it is probable, as long as elephants are sufficiently numerous to be taken in herds, that the greater expence of breeding them will discourage any attempts to continue the species under the direction of man, there is no doubt, if it were desirable, that the elephant might be improved in size, strength, and activity, exactly in the same manner that the horse of England has been rendered so superior in power and swiftness to the horse in a state of nature, by a judicious intermixture of various races.

The ordinary period of gestation in the elephant is

*De Re Rustica, lib. iii. cap. 8. † Ayeen Akbery, vol. i.

twenty months and eighteen days. This point has been established by the observations of Mr. Corse. The young elephant at its birth is about thirty-five inches high. In the first year he grows about eleven inches; in the second eight; in the third six; in the fourth five; in the fifth five; in the sixth three and a half; and in the seventh two and a half. Mr. Corse thinks that elephants attain their full size between eighteen and twenty-four years of age; though other writers, reasoning from the duration of life, believe that the animal continues to increase in size, when in a state of nature, for nearly double that period.

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Mr. Ranking, who was resident many years in Hindostan, saw an elephant in Bengal when it was only eighteen hours old. It was about thirtythree inches high, weak and tottering, but very playful, twisting in its proboscis a few blades of large grass *", That the young elephant sucks with its mouth is now distinctly ascertained. It is somewhat a humiliating reflection for the pride of human knowledge, which grasps at so many things beyond the limits of reason, and is lamentably ignorant of some of the commonest circumstances that happen on the earth, that a point apparently so simple should long have remained in doubt; and that several of the most deservedly pópular writers should have maintained that the young of the elephant did, in this particular, exactly what it does not, and were ready to establish their position by the most incontrovertible theories. The pertinacity of those who speculate on events without evidence, and who support their speculations even against the most distinct evidence, is curiously exemplified in M. Houel's account of the habits of the elephant; for

* Wars and Sports of the Mongols, &c., p. 444.

he refuses to believe M. le Vaillant's narrative of his own observation of the young elephant sucking with his mouth, because Perrault and Buffon had asserted the contrary, upon the soundest analogies! Mr. Corse's account of the actual process is the most precise which we have met with.

"The young of the elephant, at least all those I have seen, begin to nibble and suck the breast soon after birth, pressing it with the trunk, which by natural instinct they know will make the milk flow more readily into the mouth, while sucking. Elephants never lie down to give their young ones suck; and it often happens, when the dam is tall, that she is obliged for some time to bend her body towards her young, to enable him to reach the nipple with his mouth: consequently, if ever the trunk was used to lay hold of the nipple it would be at this period, when he is making laborious efforts to reach it with his mouth, but which he could always easily do with his trunk, if it answered the purpose. In sucking, the young elephant always grasps the nipple, which projects horizontally from the breast, with the side of his mouth. I have very often observed this; and so sensible are the attendants of it, that with them it is a common practice to raise a small mound of earth, about six or eight inches high, for the young one to stand on, and thus save the mother the trouble of bending her body every time she gives suck, which she cannot readily do when tied to her picket*." M. Foucher d'Obsonville, who had also observed the young elephant playing with the teat of the mother with his trunk, attributes the prevalent error to this circumstance. Mr. Williamson says, that the position of the two breasts of the female enables the young one

*Phil, Trans. 1799.

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(technically called a calf) to suck as it runs along by the side of the mother, or even under her belly*. The affection of the female elephant for her young has been denied by some writers. Mr. Williamson, however, gives an anecdote which contradicts this opinion. He says, a female elephant will trust her young with great confidence among the human species, but is very jealous of all brutes. If, however, they suspect any trick, or perceive any danger, they become ungovernable. I recollect being one of many who were seated at the top of a flight of stone steps at the entrance into the Great House at Secrole, and had enticed the calf of a very fine, good-tempered elephant feeding below to ascend towards us.

*Oriental Field Sports, p. 43.

When

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