Elephant

the largest land animal now living. A well grown male is from eight to ten feet high at the shoulder and attains a weight of 10,000 lbs. The hide is thick, wrinkled, and sparsely covered with hair, placing the elephant among the thick-skinned animals, to which the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, and the pig also belong. The general color is bluish or slaty gray. To support so heavy a body the elephant is provided with colossal straight legs, to which the name columnar, from their resemblance to the columns of a temple, is sometimes applied. The elephant not infrequently sleeps leaning against a tree or a cliff, as though slumber had overtaken it while scratching itself; but it lies down with the utmost ease, sprawling with its legs comfortably extended forward and backward. Despite its great weight it rises easily. Its gait is a shuffling walk, which may be increased in speed to very nearly that of a horse, but cannot be changed into either a trot or a canter. Even in its lumbering charge upon a luckless hunter it performs a double-quick shuffle. The ease with which the elephant sprawls or allows its body to sink to the ground is of the utmost advantage in ascending or descending mountains, in which, despite its heavy bulk, it quite excels the horse in speed, security of foot, and in ability to climb where the ascent is so steep that a horse remaining erect on its legs, would fall backward. The skeleton shows that each foot is provided with five toes, but the entire foot is contained in a flexible, muscular, tough-soled sack, through the edge of which five horny, claw-like hoofs project slightly. The flat foot makes a track as large as a half-bushel measure.

The neck is very short and stiff. The head is large, affording broad surfaces for the attachment of the muscles of the trunk. The forehead is broad and benevolent in appearance, corresponding to the elephant's well founded reputation for intelligence; but, if the truth be told, the brain capacity within is actually quite small. The skull is very thick, and is honeycombed with air passages reducing its weight.

The most peculiar feature of an elephant is its nose or trunk, the tip of which, containing the nostrils, is extended eight feet, easily touching the ground when the animal is standing erect. The trunk is an exceedingly strong, lithe, tough, sensitive organ, composed, anatomists say, of 40,000 distinct muscles of varying size and delicacy. The uses of the trunk are various. With this instrument the elephant is able to grasp leaves and twigs, otherwise above its reach, and to lift food from the ground and tuck it into its mouth. Its customary food consists of grasses and rice, which it pulls with its trunk and cleans from dirt by flogging the roots against its front legs. Sugar-cane is its delight, although the elephant of the menagerie must be content with about 200 pounds of hay and carrots. In drinking, the elephant fills its trunk and discharges the contents by blowing into its mouth. By using its trunk as a trumpet the elephant makes itself heard for miles. In its native jungle the elephant has a keen scent for food or enemies. Its large, pendulous, lopsided ears, shaped like the leaf of a begonia, catch the slightest sound. Its natural enemy is the tiger, which it seizes with its trunk and flings against a tree or tramples under foot in a fine rage. It is said that the mere sight of a dead tiger throws an elephant into a fury. Two incisors of the upper jaw are prolonged almost directly forward into huge tusks which sometimes attain a weight of 150 or 200 pounds each. A further account will be found in an article on IVORY.

The elephant has long been domesticated. It was employed by the Carthaginians, as may be remembered, in their wars, and is used at the present time by the natives of India chiefly in conveying and piling lumber. An elephant is able to balance a timber of several hundred pounds' weight on its tusks and guide it through a forest path to the water's edge. When employed in a lumber yard it shows great intelligence. It will lift and carry heavy timbers, piling them up with exactness for hours at a time without the least suggestion. The magnates of India ride on the elephant's back in a sort of box or saddle called a howdah. The driver or mahout sits astride the elephant's neck, guiding its movements with his voice and a sharp gad.

Elephants roam in herds under the guidance of an old male. They prefer a mountainous or at least rough forest country, and are still found in Africa, south of the Sahara, and in India south of the Himalayas. As stated, their food is entirely vegetable. They are exceedingly fond of playing in water, which they spout over themselves and companions with extreme delight. The elephant is a strong swimmer, not infrequently sinking so that only the tip of its uplifted trunk is visible above the surface. It is able to regulate its depth by inhaling or expelling air.

The elephant lives to an age of 100 or, it is said, even 200 years. The young elephant has her first calf at fifteen, or some say thirty years of age. A single calf is brought forth every six years. In suckling the young stands or sits directly in front of the mother who fondles it most affectionately with her trunk. Young are seldom produced in captivity, nor do they seem to thrive away from their native jungles.

The laboring elephants of India are recruited from the wild herds. Captives are taken in different ways. Sometimes two or three hunters lay cables knotted into snares in the path of a herd. When they have succeeded in tying the hind legs of an elephant to a tree they camp with him for weeks if need be. After his rage has been subdued by hunger and severe punishment, kinder measures are resorted to, and sweet cane is offered the prisoner as a reward for every sign of good behavior, until finally they are able to lead their captive home thoroughly subjugated. Sometimes tame female elephants are taken into the jungle. While they attract the attention of a wild male, and fondle him with their trunks, as they have been taught to do, the hunters tie his hind legs together and carry cables to adjoining trees. The thoroughly enraged prisoner is then treated as above. Sometimes herds are captured by driving them into enormous strong stockades made of the trunks of trees set upright in the earth and lashed together. The females are restored to liberty. From these accounts one gets an idea that the elephants of India are only partially wild.

Menagerie elephants are obtained chiefly from dealers in the city of Hamburg. A good specimen is worth $1,250 to $2,500 on board ship at that port. Save under rare circumstances, the elephant, when once tamed, is affectionate and kindly, becoming very much attached to its driver, and permitting the caresses of children with evident satisfaction. It is said that if a child falls asleep in the path of an elephant carrying timbers, it will step over the little body, lifting each foot with the utmost care.

For some account of extinct elephants well adapted to living in an Arctic climate, the reader is referred to the article on the MAMMOTH. See also MASTODON; HIPPOPOTAMUS; RHINOCEROS; IVORY; TEAK; SIAM.