175

1.

THE

The Elephant.

HE elephant is the largest and most magnificent animal that at prefent treads the earth. Its height is no less than from feven to fifteen feet. Whatever care we take to imagine a large aniraal beforehand, yet the firit fight of this huge creature never fails to trike us with aftonifhment.

2 The eleplant is a native of Africa and Afia, being found neither in Europe nor America. In Africa he ftill retains his nat

Elephant.

magnificent ?

height.

fails.

ural liberty. They are found in great num- Senegal.
bers beyond the river Senegal, and fo down
to the Cape of good-hope, as well as in the
heart of the country. In this extenfive re-
gion they appear to be more numerous than region.
in any other part of the world. They cannot
live far from water and they always difturb
it before they drink.

3. In proportion to the fize of the elephant,

his eyes are very fmall; but they are lively, brilliant? brilliant, and capable of a pathetic expreffion

of fentiment. He turns them flowly, and with mildness, towards his mafter. When he pathetic? fpeaks, the animal regards him with an eye

of friendship and attention. He feems to reflect with deliberation, and never deter- precipitation? mines until he has examined, without paffion

or precipitation, the orders which he is defired to obey.

4. His ears are very large, and much longer even in proportion to his body, than thofe of the afs. They lie flat on the head, and pendulous? are commonly pendulous; but he can raise and move them with fuch facility, that he afes them as a fan to cool himfelf, and to defend his eyes from duft and insects. His ear is remarkably fine; for he delights in the found

of

Tabour.

probofcis.

of mufical instruments, and moves in cadence to the trumpet, and tabour.

5. But, in the ftructure of the elephant, the moit fingular o gan is his trunk, or probofeis. The trunk is, properly speaking, only the fnout lengthened out to a great extent, hollow like a pipe, and ending in two openings or noftrils, like thofe of a hog. An ele. circumference? phant of fourteen feet high, has the trunk about eight feet long, and five feet and a half in circumference at the mouth where it is thickelt.

mufcles.

pliant?

extenfion?

Anots.

expedient ?

extremity?

6. This fleshy tube is compofed of nerves and muscles, covered with a proper fkin of a blackifh colour, like that of the rest of his body. It is capable of being moved in every direction, of being lengthened and fhortened, of being bent or ftraightened, fo pliant as to embrace any body it is applied to, and yet lo ftrong that nothing can be torn from the gripe.

7. Thro this, trunk the animal breathes, drinks and fmells, as thro a tube; and at the very point of it, just above the noftrils, there is an extenfion of the fkin about five inches long, in the form of a finger, by means of which he lifts from the ground the smallest pieces of money; he selects herbs, and flowers, and picks them up one by one; he unties the knots of ropes, opens and fhuts gates by turning the keys, or pushing back the bolts.

8. It fometimes happens that the object is too large for the trunk to grafp; infuch a cafe, the elephant makes ufe of another expedient, as admirable as any of the former. It applies the extremity of the trunk to the surface of the object, and, fucking up its breath, lifts and fuftains fuch a weight as the air in that cafe is capable of keeping fufpended.

9. In this manner, this inftrument is useful in most of the purposes of life; it is an organ

of

of fmelling, of touching, and of fuction. Of Touching. all the inftruments which Nature has bestowed on her most favourite productions, the, trunk of the elephant feems to be the most organic? complete, as well as the most admirable. It

is not only an organic inftrument, but a triple fenfe,whofe united functions exhibit the effects quadrupeds? of that wonderful fagacity which exalts the elephant above all other quadrupeds.

10. But, though the elephant be thus admirably fupplied by its trunk, yet, with refpect unwieldly? to the rest of its conformation, it is unwieldy and helplefs. The neck is fo fhort that it can fcarce turn the head, and must wheel round in order to di'cover an enemy from behind. affaults. The hunters that attack it upon that quarter. generally thus efcape the effects of its indignation; and find time to renew their affults while the elephant is turning to face them.

1. The legs are, indeed, not fo inflexible inflexible? as the neck, yet they are very ftiff and bend

not without difficulty. The joints by which

they bend, are nearly in the middle, like the flexure ? knee of a man; and the great bulk which they are to fupport, makes their flexure ungainly. While the elephant is young, it bends the legs

to lie down or to rife; but when it grows old, ungainly? or fickly, this is not performed without human affistance; and it becomes confequently, fo inconvenient, that the animal chooses to fleep ftanding.

12. The feet, upon which these maffy col- columns. umas are fupported, form a base scarce broad

er than the legs they fuftain. They are divided

into five toes, which are covered beneath the protuberance fkin and none of which appear to the eye; a kind of protuberance like claws are only obferved, which vary in number from three to five.

13. To the rest of the elephant's incum- incumbrances? brances may be added its enormous tofks, enormous? which