The MANATEE, or _Lamantin_ of the French, inhabits the African

and American Continents. In Africa it ranges along the west coast,

and ascends the Senegal, Niger, Congo, and other rivers, where it

not only frequents the lagoons, but even has been captured in Lake

Tchad. This animal is known as _M. senegalensis_. In America two

forms are supposed to exist--one, the _M. latirostris_, of Florida,

is said to have closer resemblance to the African form than to its

fellow-countryman; the other, _M. americanus_, is found in Surinam,

Guiana, Jamaica, the Amazon and its tributaries, and, indeed, in the

various rivers, bays, and inlets of the tropical American coast. These

creatures, like the foregoing, browse upon the aquatic vegetation of

the shallow lagoons and river banks, apparently, however, having a

preference for fresh-water plants. Their habits and mode of feeding

are, in a measure, similar to those of the Dugong and the Rhytina. The

full-grown Manatee is from ten to twelve feet in length. Its long body

terminates in a thin, wide, shovel-shaped, fibrous, horizontal tail,

proportionally broader, but resembling somewhat that of the Beaver.

The fore-limbs, or flippers, have diminutive flat nails. The skin of

the body can be compared only to that of the Elephant, not in colour

alone, but also in its coarse, wrinkly texture, and widely-scattered,

delicate, but long hairs. Its deep-set, minute eye is surrounded by

skin wrinkles. As in the preceding genera, the muzzle is peculiar--a

kind of half-moon-shaped swelling above, with deep crossing wrinkles

set with short stiff bristles. Beneath this there projects a mass of

hard gum, covered with a roughened horny plate. The lower jaw also has

a gum plate, underhung by a bristle-clad lower lip. The nostrils are

two semi-lunar, valve-like slits, at the apex of the muzzle. When the

mouth is opened, the marginal inner cheeks are seen to be hair-covered,

and the hard, horny palate to be very conspicuous above and below. This

remarkable muzzle and mouth are specially adapted to the animal’s mode

of feeding. Steller long ago remarked that the Rhytina’s muzzle was

exceedingly prehensile; but in a live Manatee exhibited at the London

Zoological Gardens, Professor Garrod observed and has recorded the

remarkable manner and use of this lip-structure. In grasping its food,

the bristly-clad outer angles of the upper lip at first diverge, and

then approximate like a pair of pincers, holding the object firmly,

which is then drawn inwards by a backward movement of the lips. The

horny pads again on the closing of the mouth further bruise the

vegetable matter. In 1866, the Zoological Society sent Mr. Clarence

Bartlett to Surinam, to bring home a young Manatee. This suckling,

christened “Patcheley,” had been obtained when quite a baby by the

Indians, and duly transferred to a lakelet, where he had his freedom.

Although fishy in form and fondness for the water, he had nevertheless

to receive daily a good _quantum_ of Cow’s milk from a bottle. He soon

got fond of the “black Jack,” as well as of his keeper. Mr. Bartlett,

as wet nurse, had a difficulty in training his charge. Loosely attired,

he waded about and coaxed his pet to the water’s edge, where, after a

stolen suck or two, he permitted himself to be raised partly on his

knees, and then sucked away might and main till the bottle was dry.

His appetite satisfied, he seemed in high glee, tumbled and rolled

about a while, then got quieter, retired to the pool, and slept lazily

near the surface. At times his disposition was more rollicking, and

Master Patcheley would overturn his nurse into the mud, where the

two spluttered and floundered for possession of the bottle. Clusius

recounts how a pet “Mato” was kept by a Spanish Governor for twenty-six

years; it came at call to the side of the lake to be fed, and would

even allow boys to mount on its back while it harmlessly swam about.

For long the pursuit of the Manatee has been a favourite amusement

with the natives. One instance is related of Indians on the Mosquito

shore spearing it from canoes, when the animal darted off as he felt

the weapon, dragging the canoe after it round and round the bight

until exhausted. Mr. Alfred R. Wallace says the natives of the Amazon

capture them alive, in strong nets, at the mouth of the streams, and

afterwards kill them by thrusting wooden plugs up their nostrils. The

Manatee has no milk-teeth, though when young there are two rudimentary

incisors in each jaw, which afterwards become covered in. Canines are

entirely absent, and the molars vary in number from nine to eleven in

the upper and lower jaw on each side. Those in the upper series are

three-rooted, in the lower series two-rooted; all the molars are broad,

square-crowned, and with transverse ridging or cusp structure like that

of the Hippopotamus or partly like that of Mastodon. The molar series

are never simultaneously in place and use, those in front dropping out

and making room for those behind.

FOSSIL SIRENIA.--The HALITHERIUM is the name given

to certain fossil remains which have been found in the Miocene strata

of Germany and various other parts of Europe. These remains show that

there may have been several species, but all are truly of a Sirenian

character. The fossil remains were intermediate, though possibly most

closely allied to the Manatee, some of them being slightly larger than

this animal. The dentition is unusually interesting, inasmuch as there

appear to have been vertical successors; anteriorly there are simple,

cylindrical premolars, and posteriorly larger, complex molars, while

the somewhat bent-down upper jaw bore tusk-like appendages. But the

most peculiar and interesting point in connection with the Halitheria,

is that they were provided with rudiments of a hind limb, a thigh-bone

some few inches in length having been found by the late Professor Kaup,

though curiously enough no further vestige of it has since turned

up. Judging from the almost complete skeletons obtained, and from

comparison with what we know of other Sirenia, the Halitherium must

have closely resembled the living Manatee, and possibly have lived in

the lagoons and brackish waters of mid-Europe and elsewhere, for in the

Eocene and Miocene times these regions, now high and dry, formed watery

areas in communication with the ocean.

Besides the foregoing, within the last few years our knowledge

of Sirenoids has been considerably augmented by the discovery of

other fossil remains indicating several new genera. _Prorastomus_

is founded by Owen on a skull from West Indian (doubtful) Tertiary

strata. _Crassitherium_ is applied by Van Beneden to vertebræ, and

part of a skull from deposits near Antwerp. _Felsinotherium_, (with

but (5-5)/(5-5) molar teeth) is a form described by Capellini, from

Pliocene beds in Bologna. _Pachyacanthus_, found in strata in the

neighbourhood of Vienna, Brandt supposed a Cetacean, but Van Beneden

regards it as a Sirenian. The _Rhytiodus_, of Lartet, is based on

some fossil teeth bearing resemblances to those of the Dugong. Lastly

comes (in the cast of a brain), the still more remarkable _Eotherium_

of Owen, from the nummulitic Eocene of Egypt. Some of these fossils

are of intense interest, for example, _Prorastomus_, the Tapir-like

dentition of which is--Incisors, (3-3)/(3-3); canines, (1-1)/(1-1);

premolars, (5-5)/(5-5); molars, (3-3)/(3-3) = 48. Very interesting

also are _Pachyacanthus_, with possibly but six neck vertebræ, like

the Manatee; and _Halitherium_, with its hind limb bones, and which

also, along with _Felsinotherium_, foreshadows the molar pattern of

Hippopotamus. Thus, taking these facts into consideration, together

with many other structural peculiarities, Elephant-like and otherwise,

and notwithstanding that the Sirenia are aquatic and Whale-like, their

structural relationship with the Proboscidea and Ungulata is not so

far-fetched as at first sight might seem. But the gap is not yet

bridged, and until that is done the order Sirenia must be retained.

JAMES MURIE.

[Illustration: MOUNTED SKELETON OF HALITHERIUM, IN THE HEIDELBERG

UNIVERSITY MUSEUM]

[Illustration: SKELETON OF INDIAN ELEPHANT.]

ORDER PROBOSCIDEA (ELEPHANTS).

Order Proboscidea--Antiquity of the Elephant--Referred

to in the Bible--Mentioned in the Apocrypha--War

Elephants--Their Accoutrements--Hannibal’s Elephants--Elephants

amongst the Romans--Skull--Dentition--Vertebræ--Odd

Delusion about its Legs--Proboscis--Species--THE INDIAN

ELEPHANT--Size--Range--Habits--Various Modes of Capture--Keddah--Used

as a Labourer or Nurse--Sagacity--White Elephants--THE

AFRICAN ELEPHANT--Characteristics--Range--Habits and

Haunts--Hunting--Pitfalls--Aggageers Chasing--Elephant-Shooting--How

the Natives Cut it up--FOSSIL ELEPHANTS AND THEIR ALLIES--Absurd

Stories--MAMMOTH--How it was first Found--Story of the Fourth or

Benkendorf’s Discovery--Range--MASTODON--DINOTHERIUM.

The Elephants, Horses, Rhinoceroses, Tapirs, Coneys, Pigs, and

Hippopotami, were all grouped together by the older naturalists under

the order of Pachyderms,[256] or thick-skinned animals provided with

hoofs, but not furnished with a complex stomach for rumination,

or chewing of the cud. They are now divided into three different

orders--the Proboscidea, Hyracoidea, and Ungulata--which we shall

define and describe each in its proper place.

The order Proboscidea, or animals possessed of a proboscis, or trunk,

consists of two living species, the Indian and African Elephant, and

two extinct genera known as Dinotherium and Mastodon. The Elephant,

from its large size and its singular sagacity, attracted the attention

of man in the earliest times, and was always looked upon with feelings

of awe and reverence. At the present time the African savage, in the

region of the Congo, compasses its death with the mysterious aid of

the medicine-man, according to Mr. Winwood Reade, as well as by the

ordinary means of hunting. The animal, in early times, was used both

for purposes of war and peace, and figures, at the present time, alike

in the gorgeous retinues of Indian princes, and ministers to the more

humble and more useful services of the husbandman. The ivory furnished

by its tusks was known in the remotest antiquity. The first undoubted

mention of the Elephant in the Bible relates to the use of ivory, which

certainly was employed by the ancient Greeks, Assyrians, and Egyptians

early in their history.

King Solomon had a throne of ivory, which was obtained through the

Phœnician traders probably from Africa. “For the king had at sea a navy

of Tharshish (Cilicia) with the navy of Hiram; once in three years came

the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and

peacocks” (1 Kings x. 22). Elephants are also mentioned in 2 Chron.

ix. 21; and at considerable length in the first and second books of

Maccabees, where their use in war is described (1 Macc. vi. 28-30;

43-46).

The Elephants were used in war also by the Indian nations, and were

looked upon as most formidable engines in battle. By the aid of these

huge creatures, to a large extent, they conquered and held possession

of the region of Central Asia west of the Indus.

It appears that the relative force of Elephants in a great army corps

was one to each chariot of war, with three horsemen and five archers,

the latter being perched on the Elephant’s back within a houdah of a

defensible nature, denominated a castle, the whole forming what was

termed a patti, or squad, comprising altogether not more than eleven

men, with the drivers or attendants. This shows that in India, which

furnished Elephants and the manner of arming them, only four or five

archers, with or without the mahout, or driver, were told off to each

animal; consequently, when the successors of Alexander introduced them

in their wars in Syria, Greece, and Italy, they were not encumbered

with more than one or two additional persons before a charge. Indeed,

considerable trouble appears to have been taken that a war Elephant

should not be nearly as heavily laden as one simply used for carrying

burdens; therefore the number of thirty-two soldiers given in Maccabees

as seated upon each Elephant must somehow or other be a mistake. These

Elephants were well trained, and taught to hold out one of their hind

legs horizontally, when it was necessary to mount them in a hurry.

They appeared to take considerable delight and satisfaction in the

gaudy trappings with which they were usually decorated. In some cases,

Elephants have proved more dangerous to the army in whose ranks they

were serving than to the enemy, by being suddenly confronted with

objects previously unobserved. On such occasions they turn in haste,

and spread terror and death into their own ranks. Careful, judicious,

and long-continued training was the only remedy against these sudden

surprises.

African Elephants probably were never so well trained and subdued

as the Indian; nevertheless, they were used by the Carthaginians in

the first Punic War (264-241 B.C.) with much success, and

to the discomfiture of the Romans. In the second Punic War (218-216

B.C.) Hannibal performed the most astounding and remarkable

feats of crossing the Pyrenees, making his way through Gaul, crossing

the Alps with thirty-seven Elephants, and defeating the Romans at

the Ticinus. Most of the Elephants, however, died shortly afterwards

from the excessive coldness of the weather and the fatigue they had

undergone. Various accounts are given in Roman history regarding the

manner in which the Elephants crossed the Rhone. One story goes that

they were assembled together on the bank, and the fiercest of them

being provoked by his keeper, pursued him as he swam across the water,

to which he had run for refuge, and that the rest of the herd followed.

There is, however, more reason to believe that they were conveyed

across on rafts. It is said that one raft two hundred feet long and

fifty broad was extended from the bank to the river, and was then

secured higher up by several strong cables to the bank, that it might

not be carried down by the stream. The soldiers then covered it over

with earth, so that the animals might tread upon it without fear, as

on solid ground. Another raft one hundred feet long, and of the same

breadth as the other, was joined to this first. The Elephants were

driven along the stationary raft as along a road, and then, the females

leading the way, passed on to the other raft, which was fastened to it

by lashings. This, on being cut, was drawn by boats to the opposite

shore. The Elephants gave no signs whatever of alarm, while they were

driven along as it were on a continuous bridge; but a few became

infuriated when the raft was let loose, and fell into the river,

finding their way, however, safely to the shore.

The trappings and armour of a war Elephant have been described by the

author of the “Ayeen Akbery” as follows:--“Five plates of iron, each

one cubit long and four fingers broad, are joined together by rings,

and fastened round the ears of the Elephant by four chains, each an ell

in length; and betwixt these another chain passes over the head, and

is secured beneath; and across it are four iron spikes, with ratasses

and iron knobs. There are other chains with iron spikes and knobs,

hung under the throat and over the breasts, and others fastened to the

trunk; these are for ornament and to frighten Horses. Pakher is a kind

of steel armour that covers the body of the Elephant; there are other

pieces of it for the head and proboscis.”

[Illustration: SECTION OF SKULL OF INDIAN ELEPHANT.

_s_, Air Sinuses; _n_, Nostrils; _b_, Brain; _m_, Molar; _t_, Tusk.]

History informs us that when Timour, or Tamerlane, attacked the

dominions of the Sultan Mahmoud (A.D. 1399), the Elephants,

of which the latter had a considerable number, caused great terror

and alarm; and that the preparations made by Timour to overcome the

Elephants were of the most extraordinary nature, for not only did

he surround his camp with a deep ditch and bucklers, but also had

Buffaloes tied together round the ramparts, with huge brambles on their

heads, which were to be set on fire at the approach of the Elephants.

The forces of the Sultan, besides the Elephants, consisted of a large

number of horse and foot soldiers armed with swords and poisoned

daggers. Attendant upon the Elephants were men armed with fire, melted

pitch, and other horrid missiles, to be hurled at the invaders. The

Elephants also, besides being armed, were decorated with all sorts of

articles, such as cymbals and bells, and other objects likely to create

a noise and confusion. Notwithstanding all this terrific display,

Timour’s forces fought with great courage, actually defeating the

Sultan’s forces, and putting the Elephants to flight, the unfortunate

creatures undergoing severe usage to their trunks by the swordsmen,

who appeared soon to find out the more vulnerable parts. It is said

that the trunks of many of the Elephants were left scattered on the

battle-field, having been severed by the sword. The belief in the

invincibility of the Elephants was then for ever gone; and it is even

said of Timour’s grandson, then quite a boy, that he himself wounded an

Elephant, and drove it in as a captive to his grandfather’s camp.

We are told that in ancient times the number of Elephants annually

brought from Africa to Rome, to be trained for the cruel and disgusting

practice of fighting in the theatre, was very great. It is said of

Pompey that, at the dedication of his theatre, no less than five

hundred Lions, eighteen Elephants, and a number of armed men, were

all at one time in the circus. In the second consulate of Pompey (54

B.C.) Elephants were opposed, in the circus, to Getulian

archers; and, according to Pliny, this exhibition was characterised

by some uncommon circumstances. One of the Elephants, although

furious from a wound, is recorded to have seized upon the shields of

his adversaries, and to have thrown them in the air with a peculiar

movement, doubtless the effect of training, which caused the shields

to whirl round before their fall. It is also stated that an Elephant,

having been killed by a thrust of a javelin through the eye, the others

rushed forward in a general charge to save him, and that on their

coming with terrific force against the iron railings, the latter gave

way, and several of the spectators were either injured or killed. On

another occasion, when some Elephants, with other wild animals, were

fighting together in the arena, the spectators so compassionated the

unfortunate creatures, who were raising their trunks to heaven and

roaring piteously, as if imploring aid of the gods, that they rose

from their seats, and, disregarding Pompey’s presence, demanded that

the Elephants might be spared. The destruction of Elephants in sport

by the Romans, as well as the increased demands of the ivory trade,

have caused the African Elephants to disappear from those regions

of Northern Africa which they once inhabited. In the days of the

Carthaginians, the animal was found north of the Sahara, where at

present it is unknown.

The skull of the Elephant is remarkable for its great size, and the

comparatively small cavity occupied by the brain. The latter is small

in comparison to the size of the animal, in bulk not much exceeding

that of man. Although the bones of the skull are so large, they are not

solid, their interior being occupied by hollows divided from each other

by thin partitions, by which means the skull is rendered lighter than

might be supposed; and altogether it forms a beautiful instance of a

provision for increasing the surface for attachment of muscles, without

being too great a burden to its possessor. The skull of the Indian

Elephant is of a much more pyramidal and less shapely form than that of

the African.

The dentition in the Elephants presents several points of considerable

interest. In the Indian species, the males alone have well-developed

incisors; while both sexes of the African species are provided with

them. These--more commonly known as tusks--grow to an enormous size,

sometimes reaching the weight of from a hundred and fifty to two

hundred pounds. There are no lower incisors, and only two of the molar

teeth are to be seen at each side of the jaw at one time. There are

six of these in each side, or four-and-twenty in all, in the lifetime

of the Elephant, and these present a gradual increase in size as they

successively appear. These teeth move forward into their working place

in the jaw in regular succession, from behind forwards, each being

pushed out by its successor as it gradually becomes worn away. The

teeth are worn away, not merely by the food on which the animal lives,

but also by the particles of sand and grit entangled in the roots of

the herbs torn up for food, and their wear is compensated by the growth

and development of the succeeding teeth. In a state of captivity,

however, where the food is much more free from extraneous substances

than in a state of nature, the teeth are not worn away fast enough

to make room for the development of the successors, and it therefore

frequently happens that the tooth is deformed by a piling over of the

plates of which it is composed.

[Illustration: SIDE VIEW OF MOLAR TOOTH OF INDIAN ELEPHANT.

A, Upper; B, Lower.]

The molar or grinding-teeth of the Elephant are for the most part

buried in the socket, and present little more than a surface for

mastication above the gum. Each is composed of a number of transverse

perpendicular plates, built up of a body of dentine, covered by a

layer of enamel, and this again by a layer of cement, which fills the

interspaces of the plates, and binds together the divisions into one

solid mass. Each of these enamel plates, however, in the perfect tooth

is united at the base. When these plates of enamel--which stand out in

the transverse plates on account of their superior hardness, and cause

the grinding surface to be uneven--are worn out, the animal either dies

of indigestion, or more often becomes weak, and falls a prey to wild

beasts.

[Illustration: LAST LOWER TOOTH OF AFRICAN ELEPHANT.]

[Illustration: LAST LOWER TOOTH OF INDIAN ELEPHANT.]

The difference between the grinders of the Indian and African Elephants

is well defined. In the former, the transverse ridges of enamel are

narrower, more undulating, and more numerous than in the African,

in which latter species the ridges are less parallel, and enclose

lozenge-shaped spaces. The cervical vertebræ form a short and stiff

series, allowing but a limited motion of the head from side to side,

a more extended action being rendered unnecessary by the flexibility

of the trunk. With regard to the dorsal vertebræ, they appear to vary

in number in both species. In the African species the number varies

from twenty to twenty-one, and in the Indian species from nineteen to

twenty. As might be expected, the limbs of the Elephant are massive and

powerful. In ancient times it was a popular delusion that the legs of

an Elephant possessed no joints; and even now people are to be found

who believe that the Elephant’s joints move in a contrary direction

to that of other quadrupeds. Shakspere evidently enjoyed the popular

belief. In _Troilus and Cressida_, Ulysses, speaking of the stiff

demeanour of Ajax towards Achilles, says:--

“The Elephant hath joints, but none for courtesy,

His legs are legs for necessity, not for flexure.”

And so in Chapman’s drama (1605) of _All Fools_ we read:--

“I hope you are no Elephant, you have joints.”

These ideas originated from the peculiar gait of the Elephant.

The shape of the Elephant is so familiar to every one that it is only

necessary to remark that the ponderous body, clad in a thick and

almost hairless skin, has the fore-quarters higher than the hinder

parts, and that the thigh in the hind leg is long and straight when

the animal is standing. The knee is visible below the body, and bends

so as to bring the foot in the rear. On comparing an Elephant and a

Carnivore, and their skeletons as well, the arrangement of the joints

of the hind quarters will be noticed to be different. In fact, the

bend of the Elephant’s knee gives the gait of the huge creature an

appearance unlike that of any other animal. It stands on the ends of

its five toes, each of which is terminated by comparatively small

hoofs, and the heel-bone is a little distance from the ground. Beneath

comes the wonderful cushion, composed of membranes, fat, nerves, and

blood-vessels, besides muscles, which constitutes the sole of the foot.

The fore-foot is larger than the hind one, and as the creature does

not require to climb, or to lift its fore-limb very high, there is no

collar-bone. In the young there is more hair on the body than might

have been expected, and they have a set of milk teeth.

The brain is greatly convoluted on the surface, but the little brain,

or cerebellum, is not covered by the brain proper.

[Illustration: TRUNK OR PROBOSCIS OF ELEPHANT.

A, Muscles and Tendons; B, Transverse Section.]

The trunk or proboscis of the Elephant, from which the name of

the order to which this animal belongs is derived, is certainly a

remarkable and wonderful organ. It is really a prolongation of the

nose, of a sub-conical form, consisting of two tubes divided by a

septum. At the extremity on the upper side, above the opening of the

nostrils, is a lengthened process to be looked upon in the light of a

finger; beneath this finger is a tubercle, opposable to it, and acting,

so to speak, as a thumb. With this organ, which is nearly eight feet

in length, of considerable stoutness, and extreme sensibility, the

Elephant is enabled to uproot or shake trees, lift a cannon, or pick

up a pin. By its aid, food and water are carried to the mouth, and

when necessary, it can be converted into a syringe or a shower-bath.

The length of the organ does away with the necessity of a long neck, a

short and muscular neck being absolutely required for the support of

the enormous head and tusks.

The principal characters of the Indian species, as compared with the

African, are the small ears, concave forehead, small eye, lighter

colour, and the possession of four instead of three nails or hoofs on

the hind foot. There is also a very remarkable difference in the teeth,

those of the Indian species being built up of a series of plates much

more numerous and more closely packed together than in the African

species.

THE INDIAN ELEPHANT.[257]--There are but two living species

of Elephant--the Indian (_Elephas indicus_) and the African (_Elephas

africanus_), although some naturalists have considered the Elephant

of Sumatra and Ceylon to be a distinct species, and Schlegel has

separated it from both the Indian and African, and defined it as _E.

sumatrensis_. It has been, however, shown by Dr. Falconer and others,

that although certain differences are to be noticed, they are not

of sufficient value to create a new species; but they are still of

sufficient importance to form a variety.

In size, notwithstanding the differences of opinion to be found between

certain writers on this subject, some saying that the Indian and others

that the African Elephant is the larger, it seems perfectly clear that

there cannot be much difference between the two species, and that the

maximum height is about eleven feet.

The Indian Elephant (where the progress of civilisation has not

interfered with it) is found over the greater part of the forest lands

of India, Ceylon, Burmah, Siam, Cochin-China, the Malay Peninsula, and

Sumatra; but it is doubtful whether it is indigenous to any of the

other islands of the Eastern Archipelago. Unlike the African species,

to a certain extent, it appears to have a partiality for coolness

and shade; indeed, Sir J. Emerson Tennent says that “although found

generally in warm and sunny climates it is a mistake to suppose that

the Elephant is partial either to heat or to light. In Ceylon, the

mountain tops, and not the sultry valleys, are its favourite resort.

In Oovah, where the elevated plains are often crisp with the morning

frost, and on Pedura-talla-galla, at the height of upwards of eight

thousand feet, they are found in herds, whilst the hunter may search

for them without success in the hot jungles of the low country.”

In some parts of the country Elephants are exceedingly destructive to

crops of grain. And in various parts of India, notwithstanding the care

and trouble taken to watch the crops, they do much injury. When the

rice approaches maturity it is necessary to place watchers throughout

the night in places which they frequent. Stages are erected on posts

twelve or fourteen feet high, and on one side of the stage a small shed

is made for the watchmen, two of whom always mount the same stage. One

feeds a fire kept constantly burning on the open part, while the other

in his turn is allowed to sleep, and when any Elephants come into the

field, he is awakened and both join in shouting and making all the

noise they can with sticks and drums.

The food of the Elephant appears to be considerably varied, and chosen

by the animal with no small amount of daintiness; sweet-tasting fruits,

seeds, and blossoms he has the greatest partiality for, and in their

selection much destruction is occasioned by a herd of these huge

animals. Tennent says that in Ceylon, where the food of the Elephant

is most abundant, the animal never appears to be in a hurry to eat;

but amuses himself with playing with the leaves, shaking the trees,

tearing the bark, and now and then pausing to eat, altogether taking

the whole affair in a very leisurely sort of way. He is especially

fond of the fruit of the palmyra palm, and never fails to make his

appearance in the districts where these trees grow when the fruit

begins to fall to the ground. Although the amount of food consumed by

Elephants in their wild state is very large, there is reason to believe

that many stories told of their extraordinary eating capabilities are

much exaggerated. It by no means follows that because an Elephant in a

tame state will eat so much bread, turnips, hay, &c., that it consumes

the same quantity of its natural food in a wild state. The Elephants

are believed to drink nightly in very hot weather, but in cool weather

only every third or fourth day, and for this purpose they travel long

distances to their watering-places, even as far as ten or twenty miles,

refreshing themselves by a bath and a drink at the same time when they

reach their destination.

Various modes are used for catching Elephants; but the usual practice

is to drive them into what is termed a keddah. The keddah is a large

area surrounded by a broad ditch, and towards the entrance is a similar

construction to the main body, but smaller, acting as a sort of funnel,

into which the Elephants enter when driven from the jungle, and which

assists in getting them into the keddah itself.

On discovering a large herd of Elephants, a body of men, often

numbering six or eight thousand, are collected to surround them,

carrying all sorts of instruments likely to create a noise, such as

firearms, drums, trumpets, &c., Elephants being exceedingly alarmed

by any unusual noises. By this means they are gradually driven into

the keddah, sometimes from a distance of thirty or forty miles, which

frequently occupies some days. When the Elephants find themselves

fairly entrapped, they become violent and use their utmost endeavours

to break down the barriers.

[Illustration: INDIAN ELEPHANT.]

Formerly, it was the practice to starve these captured Elephants into

submission; now, however, by means of two tame ones, trained for

the purpose, they can be captured without injury, one by one, and

afterwards bound to a tree. To accomplish this the trained animals are

sent into the enclosure, and on a wild Elephant being singled out, the

two trained ones place themselves one on each side, and attract its

attention while the attendants are occupied in binding its legs, which

having been satisfactorily accomplished, the captive is dragged to a

tree and fastened firmly, where it remains until reduced to submission

and obedience by kindness and good feeding.

“The vast jungles in the south-eastern portion of the Mysore territory

are infested with herds of wild Elephants, whose depredations on the

adjacent lands have retarded agriculture to a serious extent. A project

was set on foot by Mr. G. P. Sanderson, a young and energetic officer

in the service of the Mysore Government, to convert these Elephants

to some use by capturing and taming them. Mr. Sanderson’s design was

to drive a herd into a strongly embanked channel leading out of the

Houhole river, escape being cut off at one end by it deep ditch, and

the other opening on the river, guarded by Elephant chains supported

by strong posts. On the 9th June, 1874, the Elephants being reported

in the neighbourhood, a large party of natives, led by Mr. Sanderson

and two other ardent sportsmen, hurried to the spot, and quietly

drove the animals towards the channel. The leading Elephant being

pushed from behind by his companions, tumbled over the bank, and the

latter soon followed. This having been effected, the embankment was

quickly strengthened, large fires lighted at intervals along it, and

watchers placed for the night. The next point was to move the Elephants

into a still smaller enclosure, which was prepared close by. It was

funnel-shaped at the mouth, and formed of trunks of trees, firmly fixed

in the ground, the snare being disguised by branches and brushwood.

Over the neck of the funnel, so to speak, a drop formed of two large

cocoa-nut trees lashed together was suspended by a rope, to be severed

at a stroke when the Elephants were all in. The herd, terrified by

firebrands, rockets, and guns, were driven towards the keddah, and led

by a troublesome tusker, who had long kept the others at bay, marched

majestically one by one through the gate. After a short pause, owing

to a stand being made by a few of the most refractory, the last of the

herd went in with a rush, closely followed by a frantic native waving

a firebrand. An officer sitting ready on a branch of a tree now cut

the rope, and the drop fell amid loud cheers, thus capturing the rich

prize of fifty-three Elephants, which were brought out one by one with

the assistance of tame Elephants. The latter advance in a body and

gradually cut one off from the herd. While amusing it, and distracting

its attention, its legs are warily tied by trained men. After this

no difficulty is encountered. The capture described included twelve

valuable tuskers, and its value was estimated at over £4,000.”[258]

Indian Elephants are also sometimes captured by means of pitfalls

formed in a similar manner to those used in Africa. There is, however,

one great objection to this mode of capture, which is, that the animal

is rendered very liable, from the heavy fall it sustains, of being

seriously hurt, and indeed injuries thus received have often proved

fatal.

Another way of catching these animals in some districts of India is by

means of the lasso. Two trained females are procured for the purpose;

these are provided with a long rope which is fastened to their girdle,

and then coiled on their backs. Its end forms a noose, which a man, who

sits on the back of the trained female, throws round the neck of the

wild Elephant; the tame one then walks away until the captured one is

almost strangled. In the meantime, the people, assisted by another tame

female, endeavour to fasten ropes to his legs, and he is dragged to a

place where there are trees, to which he is fastened until he becomes

tame. The Elephants caught in this manner are usually small, and the

majority, for some reason or other, die, probably from the rough usage

they have undergone.

Elephant shooting, especially in Ceylon, was considered to be the

acme of sport; but from the number that were wantonly destroyed, an

order was issued by the Governor prohibiting their destruction. The

Elephant is invaluable as a labourer; its assistance in road-making,

bridge-building, ploughing, piling logs, lifting weights, and other

similar operations, is of the utmost service. Even as a nurse for

young children, its services, we are told, are sometimes required. An

Indian officer relates that he has seen the wife of a mahout (for the

followers often take their families with them to camp), give a baby in

charge of an Elephant, while she went on some business, and has been

highly amused in observing the sagacity and care of the unwieldy nurse.

The child, which, like most children, did not like to be at rest in

one position, would, as soon as left to itself, begin crawling about,

in which exercise it would probably get among the legs of the animal,

or entangled in the branches of the trees on which he was feeding, when

the Elephant would in the most tender manner disengage his charge,

either by lifting it out of the way with his trunk, or by removing the

impediments to its free progress. If the child had crawled to such a

distance as to verge upon the limits of his range (for the animal was

chained by the leg to a peg driven in the ground), he would stretch out

his trunk and lift it back as gently as possible to the spot whence it

had started.

[Illustration: ELEPHANT IN THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS, LONDON.

(_From a Photograph by Symmons and Co., Chancery Lane, expressly taken

for this work._)]

Endless other stories are told of the sagacity of this noble animal,

some of them, however, probably not ungarnished with considerable

exaggeration. However, this creature does undoubtedly possess a most

wonderful amount of intelligence, and it is believed that the Indian

species, both in sagacity and docility, surpasses the African.

The White Elephants, held in reverence in Siam, and extremely rare,

are not distinct from the rest; they are merely albinoes, or white

varieties, and are to be viewed in the same light as white Blackbirds

or white Sparrows.

THE AFRICAN ELEPHANT[259] is distinguished at once from the

Indian species by the great size of its ears, its larger eye, convex

forehead, darker colour of its skin, and by possessing only three

instead of four nails or hoofs in the hind foot. It is indigenous to

Africa, being found south of the Sahara as far as Cape Colony, and

from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic. It formerly lived north of the

Sahara, and in the Pleistocene age of geologists was found in Europe,

in Italy, and in Spain, to which points it probably crossed at the time

when the submerged barriers between Sicily and Africa, and Gibraltar

and Africa, were above the level of the water.

Unlike the Indian species, both the males and the females are provided

with tusks. The African differs also considerably in his habits, for

while the Indian enjoys coolness and shade, the African is more or less

exposed to the burning sun.

According to Sir Samuel Baker, “in Africa the country being generally

more open than in Ceylon, the Elephant remains throughout the day

either beneath a solitary tree, or exposed to the sun in the vast

prairies, where the thick grass attains a height of from nine to twelve

feet. The general food of the African Elephant consists of the foliage

of trees, especially of mimosas. Many of the mimosas are flat-headed,

about thirty feet high, and the richer portion of the foliage confined

to the crown. Thus, the Elephant, not being able to reach to so

great a height, must overturn the tree to procure the coveted food.

The destruction caused by a herd of Elephants in a mimosa forest is

extraordinary, and I have seen trees uprooted of so large a size that

I am convinced no single Elephant could have overturned them. I have

measured trees four feet six inches in circumference, and about thirty

feet high, uprooted by Elephants. The natives have assured me that they

mutually assist each other, and that several engage together in the

work of overturning a large tree. None of the mimosas have tap roots;

thus the powerful tusks of the Elephants applied as crowbars at the

roots, while others pull at the branches with their trunks, will effect

the destruction of a tree so large as to appear invulnerable.”

The following account by Gordon Cumming, which, on some points as to

the habits and haunts of the African Elephant does not agree with that

of Sir Samuel Baker, may be explained by the different nature of the

country hunted by him:--“The Elephant is widely diffused through the

vast forests, and is met with in herds of various numbers. The male is

much larger than the female. He is provided with two enormous tusks.

These are long, tapering, and beautifully arched; their length averages

from six to eight feet, and they weigh from sixty to a hundred pounds

each. In the vicinity of the Equator the Elephants attain to a larger

size than to the southward; and I am in possession of a pair of tusks

of the African bull Elephant, the larger of which measures ten feet

nine inches in length, and weighs one hundred and seventy-three pounds.

“Old bull Elephants are found singly or in pairs, or consorting

together in small herds, varying from six to twenty individuals. The

younger bulls remain for many years in the company of their mothers,

and these are met together in large herds of from twenty to a hundred

individuals. The food of the Elephant consists of the branches,

leaves, and roots of the trees, and also of a variety of bulbs, of the

situation of which he is advised by his exquisite sense of smell. To

obtain these he turns up the ground with his tusks, and whole acres

may be seen thus ploughed up. Elephants consume an immense quantity

of food, and pass the greater part of the day and night in feeding.

Like the Whale in the ocean, the Elephant on land is acquainted with,

and roams over, wide and extensive tracts. He is extremely particular

in always frequenting the freshest and most verdant districts of the

forests, and when one district is parched and barren, he will forsake

it for years and wander to great distances in quest of better pasture.”

[Illustration: AFRICAN ELEPHANT.]

“The Elephant entertains an extraordinary horror of man, and a child

can put a hundred of them to flight by passing at a quarter of a mile

to windward; and when thus disturbed they go a long way before they

halt. It is surprising how soon these sagacious animals are aware of

the presence of a hunter in their domains. When one troop has been

attacked, all the other Elephants frequenting the district are aware

of the fact within two or three days, when they all forsake it, and

migrate to distant parts, leaving the hunter no alternative but to

inspan his wagons, and remove to fresh ground.

“This constitutes one of the greatest difficulties which a skilful

Elephant-hunter encounters. Even in the most remote parts, which may be

reckoned the head-quarters of the Elephant, it is only occasionally,

and with inconceivable toil and hardship, that the eye of the hunter

is cheered by the sight of one. Owing to habits peculiar to himself,

the Elephant is more inaccessible and much more rarely seen than any

other game quadruped, excepting certain rare Antelopes. They choose

for their resort the most lonely and secluded depths of the forest,

generally at a very great distance from the rivers and fountains at

which they drink. In dry and warm weather they visit these waters

nightly; but in cool and cloudy weather they drink only once every

third or fourth day. About sundown the Elephant leaves his distant

midday haunt, and commences his march towards the fountain, which

is probably from twelve to twenty miles distant. This he generally

reaches between the hours of nine and midnight, when, having slaked

his thirst and cooled his body by spouting large volumes of water over

his back with his trunk, he resumes the path to his forest solitudes.

Having reached a secluded spot, I have remarked that full-grown bulls

lie down on their broadsides about the hour of midnight and sleep for

a few hours. The spot which they usually select is an ant-hill, and

they lie around it with their backs resting against it. These hills,

formed by the white Ants, are from thirty to forty feet in diameter at

their base. The mark of the under tusk is always deeply imprinted in

the ground, proving that they lie upon their sides. I never remarked

that females had thus lain down, and it is only in the more secluded

districts that the bulls adopt this practice; for I observed that, in

districts where the Elephants were liable to frequent disturbance, they

took repose standing on their legs beneath some shady tree. Having

slept, they then proceed to feed extensively. Spreading out from one

another, and proceeding in a zigzag course, they smash and destroy all

the finest trees in the forest which happen to lie in their course. The

number of goodly trees which a herd of bull Elephants will thus destroy

is utterly incredible. They are extremely capricious, and on coming

to a group of five or six trees they break down, not unfrequently,

the whole of them, when, having perhaps only tasted one or two small

branches, they pass on and continue their wanton work of destruction.

I have repeatedly ridden through forests where the trees thus broken

down lay so thick across one another that it was almost impossible to

ride through the district; and it is in situations such as these that

attacking the Elephant is attended with most danger. During the night

they will feed in open plains and thickly-wooded districts, but as day

dawns, they retire to the densest covers within reach, which nine times

in ten are composed of the impracticable wait-a-bit thorns; and here

they remain drawn up in a compact herd during the heat of the day. In

remote districts, however, and in cool weather, I have known herds to

continue pasturing throughout the whole day.”

The African Elephant is not now hunted for domestic purposes, but for

the sake of the flesh and of the ivory; and its death is a grand affair

for the natives, since it affords opportunity not merely for a feast,

but for obtaining fat for internal and external uses. There are various

methods of killing them. Pitfalls are most common, and are generally

placed in the neighbourhood of a drinking-place, the natives showing

great skill in felling trees, so as to turn the Elephants into them.

According to Sir Samuel Baker, “the pits are usually about twelve feet

long, and three feet broad, by nine deep; these are artfully made,

decreasing towards the bottom to the breadth of a foot. The general

Elephant route to the drinking-places being blocked up, the animals are

diverted by a treacherous path towards the water, the route intersected

by numerous pits, all of which are carefully concealed by sticks and

straw, the latter being usually strewn with Elephants’ dung, to create

a natural effect. Should an Elephant during the night fall through the

deceitful surface, his foot becomes jammed in the bottom of the narrow

grave, and he labours shoulder-deep, with two feet in the pitfall so

fixed that extrication is impossible. Should one animal be thus caught,

a sudden panic seizes the rest of the herd, and in their hasty retreat

one or more are generally victims to the numerous pits in the vicinity.

Once helpless in the pit, they are easily killed with lances.”

[Illustration: AGGAGEERS HUNTING AN ELEPHANT.]

The same author also relates that sometimes the Elephant-hunters, or

aggageers, of the Hamram tribe, use swords for killing Elephants. They

follow the tracks of the animal, “so as to arrive at their game between

the hours of 10 and 12 A.M., at which time it is either asleep

or extremely listless, and easy to approach. Should they discover

the animal asleep, one of the hunters would creep stealthily towards

the head, and with one blow sever the trunk while stretched upon the

ground; in which case the Elephant would start upon his feet, while the

hunters escaped in the confusion of the moment. The trunk severed would

cause a loss of blood sufficient to insure the death of the Elephant

within about an hour. On the other hand, should the animal be awake

upon their arrival, it would be impossible to approach the trunk. In

such a case, they would creep up from behind, and give a tremendous cut

at the back sinew of the hind leg, about a foot above the heel. Such a

blow would disable the Elephant at once, and would render comparatively

easy a second cut to the remaining leg. These were the methods adopted

by poor hunters, until by the sale of ivory they could purchase Horses

for the higher branch of the art. Provided with Horses, the party of

hunters should not exceed four. They start before daybreak, and ride

slowly throughout the country in search of Elephants, generally keeping

along the course of a river until they come upon the tracks where a

herd, or a single Elephant, may have drunk during the night. When

once upon the track, they follow fast towards the retreating game.

The Elephants may be twenty miles distant, but it matters little to

the aggageers. At length they discover them, and the hunt begins. The

first step is to single out the bull with the largest tusks; this is

the commencement of the fight. After a short hunt, the Elephant turns

upon his pursuers, who scatter and fly from his headlong charge until

he gives up the pursuit; he at length turns to bay when again pressed

by the hunters. It is the duty of one man in particular to ride up

close to the head of the Elephant, and thus to absorb its attention

upon himself. This insures a desperate charge. The greatest coolness

and dexterity are then required by the hunter, who, now the _hunted_,

must so adapt the speed of his Horse to the pace of the Elephant that

the enraged beast gains in the race, until it almost reaches the tail

of the Horse. In this manner the race continues. In the meantime, two

hunters gallop up behind the Elephant, unseen by the animal, whose

attention is completely directed to the Horse almost within his grasp.

With extreme agility, when close to the heels of the Elephant, one of

the hunters, while at full speed, springs to the ground with his drawn

sword, as his companion seizes the bridle, and with one dexterous

two-handed blow he severs the back sinew. He immediately jumps out of

the way, and remounts his Horse; but if the blow is successful, the

Elephant is hamstrung, and, as it cannot run rapidly on three legs, is

easily killed.”

The Fans in the neighbourhood of the Gaboon settlements, according

to Mr. Winwood Reade, are in the habit of employing the same mode

of capturing Elephants as the natives of India, namely, by enticing

them within an enclosure or fence of posts and rails, where they are

afterwards killed with cross-bows, spears, and trade-guns.

Elephant shooting, although not unattended by danger, appears to be

on the whole accomplished with considerable success, five or six

Elephants having been killed occasionally in a very short space of time

by one man; and many are the tales of hair-breadth escapes related to

us by Gordon Cumming, Tennent, Baker, and others. But it appears the

forehead-shot, so much in favour in shooting Indian Elephants, does not

answer with the African species, the form of the head and the position

of the tusks preventing the bullet from reaching the brain.

“The only successful forehead-shot,” says Sir S. Baker, “that I made

at an African Elephant was shortly after my arrival in the Abyssinian

territory, on the Settite River; this was in thick, thorny jungle,

and an Elephant from the herd charged with such good intention that,

had she not been stopped, she must have caught one of the party.

When within about five yards of the muzzle of my rifle, I killed her

dead by a forehead-shot with a hardened bullet, and we subsequently

recovered the bullet in the _vertebræ of the neck_! This extraordinary

penetration led me to suppose that I should always succeed as I had

done in Ceylon, and I have frequently stood the charge of an African

Elephant until close upon me, determined to give the forehead-shot a

fair trial, but I have _always_ failed, except in the instance now

mentioned. It must be borne in mind that the Elephant was a female,

with a head far inferior in size and solidity to that of the male. The

temple-shot, and that behind the ear, are equally fatal in Africa as in

Ceylon, provided the hunter can approach within ten or twelve yards;

but altogether the hunting is far more difficult, as the character

of the country does not admit of an approach sufficiently close to

guarantee a successful shot. In the forests of Ceylon, an Elephant

can be stalked to within a few paces, and the shot is seldom fired at

a greater distance than ten yards. Thus accuracy of aim is insured;

but in the open ground of Africa an Elephant can seldom be approached

within fifty yards, and should he charge the hunter escape is most

difficult. I never found African Elephants in good jungle, except once,

and on that occasion I shot five quite as quickly as we should kill

them in Ceylon.”

Gordon Cumming gives us the following information as to how the

natives cut up an Elephant for food and other purposes. “The rough

outer skin is first removed, in large sheets, from the side which lies

uppermost. Several coats of an under skin are then met with. This

skin is of a tough and pliant nature, and is used by the natives for

making water-bags, in which they convey supplies of water from the

nearest ‘vley,’ or fountain (which is often ten miles distant), to

the Elephants. They remove this inner skin with caution, taking care

not to cut it with the assegai; and it is formed into water-bags by

gathering the corners and edges, and transfixing the whole on a pointed

wand. The flesh is then removed in enormous sheets from the ribs, when

the hatchets come into play, with which they chop through, and remove

individually, each colossal rib. The bowels are thus laid bare; and in

the removal of these the leading men take a lively interest and active

part, for it is throughout and around the intestines that the fat of

the Elephant is mainly found.

“There are few things which a Bechuana prizes so highly as fat of any

description. They will go an amazing distance for a small portion of

it. They use it principally in cooking their sun-dried biltong, and

they also eat it with their corn. The fat of the Elephant lies in

extensive layers and sheets in his inside, and the quantity which is

obtained from a full-grown bull, in high condition, is very great.

Before it can be obtained, the greater part of the intestines must be

removed. To accomplish this, several men eventually enter the immense

cavity of his inside, where they continue mining away with their

assegais, and handing the fat to their comrades outside until all is

bare. While this is transpiring with the sides and intestines, other

parties are equally active in removing the skin and flesh from the

remaining parts of the carcass.

“The natives have a horrid practice on these occasions of besmearing

their bodies, from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, with

the black and clotted gore; and in this anointing they assist one

another, each man taking up the fill of both his hands, and spreading

it over the back and shoulders of his friend. Throughout the entire

proceeding, an incessant and deafening clamour of many voices and

confused sounds is maintained, and violent jostling and wrestling are

practised by every man, elbowing the breasts and faces of his fellows,

all slippery with gore, as he endeavours to force his way to the flesh

through the dense intervening ranks, while the sharp and ready assegai

gleams in every hand. The angry voices and gory appearances of these

naked savages, combined with their excited and frantic gestures and

glistening arms, presented an effect so wild and striking that, when I

first beheld the scene, I contemplated it in the momentary expectation

of beholding one-half of the gathering turn their weapons against the

other.

“The trunk and feet of the Elephant are considered a great delicacy,

and are baked in holes in the earth, which have been heated by fires

burnt in them. The flesh of the Elephant is then cut into strips,

varying from six to twenty feet, and about two inches in breadth and

thickness. It is then placed on poles, and allowed to dry in the sun

for two or three days, after which it is packed into bundles, each man

carrying off his share to his wife and family.”

FOSSIL ELEPHANTS AND THEIR ALLIES.

The Proboscidea, represented, as we have already seen, by two species

only among living animals, both of which are met with in and near the

tropical regions of the Old World, in the fossil state are met with

over nearly the whole of the Old World, and of the New; and are divided

into three genera--Elephas, Mastodon, and Dinotherium.

The teeth and bones of these creatures found in Europe were assigned

in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries to giants, and

many are the stories which were commonly reported about them--as, for

example, that of the giant of Dauphiné, in the reign of Louis XIV.

His remains were discovered by a surgeon, who stated that they were

enclosed in an enormous sepulchre covered with a stone slab, bearing

the inscription _Teutobochus rex_; and that in the vicinity there were

also found coins or medals, all of which showed the remains to be those

of a giant king of the Cimbri, who fought against Marius. However, the

original owner of these bones, though not of the coins, was proved to

have been an Elephant.

The story of Teutobochus is even excelled by that of another giant,

called the giant of Lucerne, whose remains when dug up were examined by

a celebrated Professor of Basle, who described them as of human origin,

and was skilful enough to put them together so as to resemble a giant

no less than twenty-six feet high. For some time the deluded people

of Lucerne paid homage to this Elephantine prodigy, until the scales

were removed from their eyes by Blumenbach, who pronounced to their

astonished senses that the giant, as it lay in state at the Jesuits’

College, was but the skeleton of an Elephant.

The Tertiary or third great period into which the geologists divide the

life history of the earth consists of the following divisions:--Eocene,

Miocene, Pliocene, Pleistocene, Prehistoric, and Historic, and it is

in the Pliocene stage that the Elephant first appears in Europe and

America.

The large, straight-tusked Elephant (_E. meridionalis_), with large

grinders composed of thick and coarse plates, is found ranged over

the whole of France, Italy, Britain, and Germany in those times, in

company with another narrow-toothed species, also with straight tusks,

described by Dr. Falconer under the name of _Elephas antiquus_.

By far the best known and most important of these huge creatures is the

far-famed MAMMOTH (_Elephas primigenius_). This Elephant has

been found frozen in Siberian soil beautifully preserved, with the hair

and tissues in so good a condition that microscopical sections have

been made of them.

The story of finding the first Mammoth imbedded in ice has been often

told, but is still of sufficient interest to be related again. A

Tungoosian fisherman, named Schumachoff, about the year 1799, was

proceeding, as is the custom of fishermen in those parts when fishing

proves a failure, along the shores of the Lena in quest of Mammoth

tusks, which have been there found in considerable abundance. During

his rambles, having gone farther than he had done before, he suddenly

came face to face with a huge Mammoth imbedded in clear ice. This

extraordinary sight seems to have filled him with astonishment and

awe; for instead of at once profiting by the fortunate discovery, he

allowed several years to roll on before he summoned courage to approach

it closely, although it was his habit to make stealthy journeys

occasionally to the object of his wonder. At length, seeing, it is

presumed, the terrific monster made no signs of eating him up, and that

its tusks would bring him a considerable sum of money, he allowed the

hope of gain to overcome his superstitious scruples. He boldly broke

the barrier of ice, chopped off the tusks, and left the carcass to the

mercy of the Wolves and Bears, who, finding it palatable, soon reduced

the huge creature to a skeleton. Some two years afterwards a man of

science was on the scent, and although so late in at the death, found

a huge skeleton with three legs, the eyes still in the orbits, and the

brain uninjured in the skull.

[Illustration: SKELETON OF MAMMOTH.]

In addition to the peculiarity of the Mammoth having its body covered

with long woolly hair, it was also remarkable for the extraordinary

formation of its enormous tusks, which curved upwards, forming a spiral.

The eminent Siberian explorer, Dr. Middendorf, in 1843, met with a

second instance of the Mammoth being preserved to such a degree that

the bulb of the eye is now in the same museum as the skeleton of a

Mammoth found by Mr. Adams in 1803. Middendorf found it in latitude

66° 30′ N., between the Obi and the Yenisei near the Arctic Circle.

In the same year he also found a young animal of the same species in

beds of sand and gravel, at about fifteen feet above the level of

the sea, near the river Taimyr, in latitude 75° 15′, associated with

marine shells of living Arctic species, as well as with the trunk of

the larch. But the fourth, and by far the most important, discovery of

a Mammoth is described by an eye-witness of its unearthing, and the

record is so valuable in its bearings that we give it at some length. A

young Russian engineer, Benkendorf by name, employed by the Government

in a survey of the coast of the mouth of the Lena and Indighirka, was

despatched up the latter stream, in 1846, in command of a small iron

steam-cutter. He writes the following account, which we translate, to a

friend in Germany:--

“In 1846 there was uncommon warm weather in the north of Siberia.

Already in May unusual rains poured over the moors and bogs, storms

shook the earth, and the streams carried not only ice to the sea, but

also large tracts of land, thawed by the masses of warm water fed by

the southern rains.... We steamed on the first favourable day up the

Indighirka; but there were no thoughts of land. We saw around us only

a sea of dirty brown water, and knew the river only by the rushing

and roaring of the stream. The river rolled against us trees, moss,

and large masses of peat, so that it was only with great trouble and

danger we could proceed. At the end of the second day, we were only

about forty versts [one verst = 1,166½ yards English] up the stream.

Some one had to stand with the sounding-rod in hand continually, and

the boat received so many shocks that it shuddered to the keel. A

wooden vessel would have been smashed. Around us we saw nothing but the

flooded land. For eight days we met with the like hindrances, until at

last we reached the place where our Yakuts were to have met us. Farther

up was a place called Ujandina, whence the people were to have come

to us, but they were not there, prevented evidently by the floods. As

we had been here in former years we knew the place. But how it had

changed! The Indighirka, here about three versts wide, had torn up

the land and worn itself a fresh channel, and when the waters sank we

saw to our astonishment that the old river-bed had become merely that

of an insignificant stream. This allowed me to cut through the soft

earth, and we went reconnoitring up the new stream which had worn its

way westwards. Afterwards we landed on the new shore, and surveyed the

undermining and destructive operation of the wild waters, that carried

away with extraordinary rapidity masses of soft peat and loam. It was

then that we made a wonderful discovery. The land on which we were

treading was moorland, covered thickly with young plants. Many lovely

flowers rejoiced the eye in the warm beams of the sun, that shone for

twenty-two out of the twenty-four hours. The stream rolled over and

tore up the soft wet ground like chaff, so that it was dangerous to go

near the brink. While we were all quiet, we suddenly heard under our

feet a sudden gurgling and stirring, which betrayed the working of the

disturbed water. Suddenly our jäger [hunter], ever on the look-out,

called loudly, and pointed to a singular and unshapely object, which

rose and sank through the disturbed waters. I had already remarked it,

but not given it my attention, considering it only drift wood. Now

we all hastened to the spot on the shore, had the boat drawn near,

and waited until the mysterious thing should again show itself. Our

patience was tried, but at last, a black, horrible, giant-like mass

was thrust out of the water, and we beheld a colossal Elephant’s head,

armed with mighty tusks, with its long trunk moving in the water, in

an unearthly manner, as though seeking for something lost therein.

Breathless with astonishment, I beheld the monster hardly twelve feet

from me, with his half-open eyes yet showing the whites. It was still

in good preservation.

“‘A Mammoth! a Mammoth!’ broke out the Tschermomori, and I shouted

‘Here quickly! chains and ropes!’ I will pass over our preparations

for securing the giant animal, whose body the water was trying to bear

from us. As the animal again sank we waited for an opportunity to

throw the ropes over his neck. This was only accomplished after many

efforts. For the rest we had no cause for anxiety, for after examining

the ground I satisfied myself that the hind legs of the Mammoth still

stuck in the earth, and that the water would work for us to unloosen

them. We therefore fastened a rope round his neck, threw a chain round

his tusks, that were eight feet long, drove a stake into the ground

about twenty feet from the shore, and made chain and rope fast to it.

The day went by quicker than I thought for, but still the time seemed

long before the animal was secured, as it was only after the lapse of

twenty-four hours that the waters had loosened it. But the position of

the animal was interesting to me; it was standing in the earth, and not

lying on its side or back as a dead animal naturally would, indicating

by this the manner of its destruction. The soft peat or marsh land

on which he stepped thousands of years ago gave way by the weight of

the giant, and he sank as he stood on it feet foremost, incapable of

saving himself, and a severe frost came and turned him into ice, as

well as the moor which had buried him; the latter, however, grew and

flourished, every summer renewing itself; possibly the neighbouring

stream had heaped plants and sand over the dead body. God only knows

what causes had worked for its preservation; now, however, the stream

had once more brought it to the light of day, and I, an ephemera of

life compared with this primeval giant, was sent here by heaven just

at the right time to welcome him. You can imagine how I jumped for

joy.... Picture to yourself an Elephant with a body covered with thick

fur, about thirteen feet in height, and fifteen in length, with tusks

eight feet long, thick and curving outwards at their ends, a stout

trunk of six feet in length, colossal limbs of one foot and a half in

thickness, and a tail naked up to the end, which was covered with thick

tufty hair. The animal was fat and well grown; death had overtaken him

in the fulness of his powers. His parchment-like, large, naked ears lay

fearfully turned up over the head; about the shoulders and the back he

had stiff hair, about a foot in length, like a mane. The long outer

hair was deep brown and coarsely rooted. The top of the head looked

so wild, and was so penetrated with pitch, that it resembled the rind

of an old oak-tree. On the sides it was cleaner, and under the outer

hair there appeared everywhere a wool, very soft, warm, and thick,

and of a yellow brown colour. The giant was well protected against

the cold. The whole appearance of the animal was fearfully wild and

strange. It had not the shape of our present Elephants. As compared

with our Indian Elephants, its head was rough, the brain case low and

narrow, but the trunk and mouth were much larger. The teeth were very

powerful. Our Elephant is an awkward animal, but compared with this

Mammoth it is as an Arabian steed to a coarse ugly Dray-horse. I could

not divest myself of a feeling of fear as I approached the head; the

broken, widely-opened eyes gave the animal an appearance of life, as

though it might move in a moment and destroy us with a roar.... The

bad smell of the body warned us that it was time to save of it what we

could, and the swelling flood, too, bade us hasten. First of all we cut

off the tusks, and sent them to the cutter. Then the people tried to

hew the head off, but, notwithstanding their good will, this was slow

work. As the belly of the animal was cut open the intestines rolled

out, and then the smell was so dreadful that I could not overcome my

nauseousness, and was obliged to turn away. But I had the stomach

separated and brought on one side. It was well filled, and the contents

instructive and well preserved. The principal were young shoots of the

fir and pine; a quantity of young fir cones also, in a chewed state,

were mixed with the mass.”

This most graphic account affords a key for the solution of several

problems hitherto unknown. It is clear that the animal must have been

buried where it died, and that it was not transported from any place

farther up stream to the south, where the climate is comparatively

temperate. The presence of fir-spikes in the stomach proves that it

fed on the vegetation which is now found at the northern part of the

woods, as they join the low, desolate, treeless, moss-covered tundra,

in which the body lay buried, a fact that would necessarily involve the

conclusion that the climate of Siberia, in those ancient days, differed

but slightly from that of the present time. Before this discovery,

the food of the Mammoth had not been known by direct evidence. The

circumstances under which it was brought to light enable us to see how

animal remains could be entombed in the frozen soil without undergoing

decomposition, which Baron Cuvier and Dr. Buckland agreed in accounting

for by a sudden cataclysm, and Sir Charles Lyell by the hypothesis

of their having been swept down by floods from the temperate into

the arctic zone. In this particular case, the marsh must have been

sufficiently soft to admit of the Mammoth sinking in; while shortly

after death the temperature must have been lowered, so as to arrest

decomposition, up to the very day on which the body arose under the

eyes of M. Benkendorf, in the exceptionally warm year of 1846, when

the tundra was thawed to a most unusual depth, and converted into a

morass permeable by water. Had any Mammoths been alive in that year,

and had they strayed beyond the limits of the woods into the tundra,

some would in all human probability have been engulfed; and, when once

covered up, the normal cold of winter would suffice to prevent the thaw

of the carcases, except in extraordinary seasons, such as that in which

this one was discovered. Probably many such warm summers intervened

since its death, but as it was preserved from the air, they would not

accelerate putrefaction to any great degree. In this way the problem

of its entombment and preservation may be solved by an appeal to the

present climatal conditions of Siberia. The difficulty of accounting

for such vast quantities of remains in the Arctic Ocean, especially in

the Läckhow Islands off the mouth of the Lena, is also explained by

this discovery, as well as the association of marine shells with the

remains of the Mammoth. The body was swept away by the swollen flood of

the Indighirka, along with many other waifs and strays, and no doubt

by this time is adding to the vast accumulation in the Arctic Sea.

It was seen by a mere chance, and must be viewed as an example of the

method by which animal remains are swept seaward. In all probability,

the frozen morass in which it was discovered is as full of Mammoths

as the peat-bogs of Ireland are of Irish Elk, and have been the main

source from which the Arctic rivers have obtained their supply of

animal remains. The remains of the Mammoth are met with in incredible

numbers in the river deposits of Middle and Northern Europe, as well

as in those of North America, showing that in ancient times the animal

ranged over a tract of land extending from the Mediterranean to the

Arctic Sea, and from Behring Strait to the Gulf of Mexico. It is also

met with in the caves in Middle Europe, having been dragged into them

by the Hyænas, or having fallen a prey to the ancient hunter. We owe,

indeed, to the skill of the latter an incisive sketch of the animal as

he appeared to the inhabitants of Auvergne, in the remote geological

period known as Pleistocene; the long, hairy mane, and spirally-curved

tusks, are faithfully depicted by the artist, and, were it not for the

strange chance which has preserved to us the whole animal in the frozen

ice-cliffs of Siberia, would have seemed to us merely imaginative

details. In another example, also from the caves of Auvergne, the

Mammoth is represented with his mouth open, and his trunk lifted up in

the attitude of charging.

[Illustration: MAMMOTH (_Restored_).]

Remains of other extinct species of Elephants are found; one, which

is of exceedingly small stature, standing not much higher than from

two and a half to three feet, has been discovered in the bone-caves of

Malta. The genus MASTODON, which in many respects resembles

the true Elephants, differs from them in the formation of the teeth,

the grinders being much simpler, more tubercular, and with crowns free

from cement. In most cases, also, there were two small tusks in the

lower jaw, as well as those in the upper. In Europe they appear in the

Miocene and Pliocene strata, and in America they survived into the

Pleistocene. The most extraordinary-looking, perhaps, of the fossil

Proboscidea, and that furthest removed from the living Elephants, is

the DINOTHERIUM, of the Miocene age. It possessed no tusks in

the upper jaw, but its lower jaw was armed with two long curved tusks,

projecting downwards. It probably possessed the habits of the Elephant,

and these tusks may have been used for uprooting trees, or hooking down

boughs, so as to obtain the leaves and shoots for food.

W. BOYD DAWKINS.

H. W. OAKLEY.

ORDER HYRACOIDEA (CONIES).

What is the Coney?--Mention in the Bible--General Appearance--Real

Place--Range--Varieties--Coney of the Bible--Cape Coney--Ashkoko of

Abyssinia--Mr. Winwood Reade’s Account of the Habits of the Cape

Coney--Skull, Dentition, Ribs, &c.

The order of animals known to naturalists as Hyracoidea (derived from

the Greek ὕραξ, a Shrew, and εἶδος, form) contains but one genus,

called Hyrax. Belonging to this genus are but two or three species of

small animals, which, however, are of considerable interest, both from

their peculiar organisation, and from their mention four times in the

Bible under the name of Shaphan, improperly translated Coney, which has

given rise to considerable controversy, as to what animal was meant.

Some persons considered, and naturally enough, that Coney meant nothing

more or less than the Rabbit; but now no doubt exists, as has been

shown from its characters and habits, that the animal referred to is

the Daman, or _Hyrax syriacus_.

The following are the passages literally rendered, in which the Hyrax

is mentioned in the Bible: “Likewise the Coney, because he cheweth

the cud, and divideth not the hoof; he shall be unclean unto you”

(Leviticus xi. 5). “But these ye shall not eat of them that chew the

cud, and of them that divide and cleave the hoof only; the Camel, nor

the Hare, nor the Coney; for they chew the cud, but divide not the

hoof; therefore they shall be unclean unto you” (Deuteronomy xiv. 7).

“The high mountains are for the Goats; the rocks are a refuge for the

Conies” (Psalms civ. 18). “The Conies are but a feeble folk, yet make

they their houses in the rocks” (Proverbs xxx. 26). With regard to the

first passage, although the Hyrax certainly does not chew the cud,

the peculiar way in which it moves its jaws, as it sits perched in a

ruminating manner, so to speak, on some ledge of rock, would naturally

suggest to the ignorant that it really was chewing the cud. In the

third quotation, we read “the rocks are a refuge for the Conies.”

This exactly suits the Hyrax, which is always found inhabiting rocky

situations. The last extract also agrees with the known habits of the

Hyrax. Here it is alluded to as being one of the four animals on earth

who are small, but very wise. These four are the Ant, the Locust, the

Spider, and the Coney. All travellers who have noticed the Hyrax are

agreed that it is a most wary and crafty animal, and that the utmost

caution is required even to obtain a view of it; and to kill one

requires a most skilful and practised sportsman.

The Hyrax is a little animal clothed with a brownish fur, of about the

size of an ordinary Rabbit, to which, indeed, it has some resemblance.

It is allied to the Rhinoceros, the Tapir, and Rodents; but the whole

form of the skeleton approaches more nearly to that of the two former

than it does to any known species of the latter. Linnæus, however, and

other authors, classed it with the Rodents; but Cuvier, seeing that

it more nearly approached the characters of the old group of animals

called Pachydermata (thick-skinned animals), placed it with them. Now,

however, it is assigned by Prof. Huxley to an order of its own named

Hyracoidea; but it still is a doubtful question as to what should be

done with it.

Of the several animals forming the genus, one, the _Hyrax syriacus_,

the Coney of the Bible, is found from the coast of the Red Sea

northwards through Syria, by Lebanon, and southwards into Arabia and

Ethiopia. Another species, _Hyrax capensis_, the Cape Coney, is found

at the Cape and east coast of Africa, extending from Abyssinia down

the east coast southwards. Two other species are described from West

Africa; but both probably belong to one genus.

Bruce, in his “Travels in Abyssinia,” tells us that the Ashkoko, which

is understood to be the same as the Daman (_Hyrax syriacus_), is found

in Ethiopia, in the caverns of the rocks, and under the large stones in

the Mountain of the Sun, behind the queen’s palace at Koscam. He also

informs us that it is of common occurrence in many other rocky places

of Abyssinia, and he says that it does not make holes like Rabbits or

Rats, because its toes are not adapted for so doing, and that it is a

very timid and gentle creature, stealing along a few paces, and then

stopping, as if to see that the coast is clear.

Bruce also states that apparently the same species inhabits Mount

Libanus, and the rocks of Cape Mohammed, which divides the Elanitic

from the Heroopolitic Gulf, or Gulf of Suez from that of Akabah, and

that the only difference he saw was in the greater size and fatness of

those of the Mountain of the Sun.

[Illustration: CONIES.]

“The _Hyrax capensis_,” writes Mr. Reade, “is found living at the Cape

of Good Hope, inhabiting the hollows and caves of the rocks, both on

the hill-sides and on the sea shore, a little above high-water mark.

It seems to live in families, and in its wild state is remarkably shy.

In the cold weather it is fond of coming out of its hole and warming

itself in the sun on the side of a rock, and in summer it enjoys the

breeze on the top of the hills, but in both instances, as well as when

it feeds, a sentinel is always placed on the look-out, generally an

old male, which gives notice of any approach of danger by a long shrill

cry.

“Its principal food is the young tops of shrubs, especially those which

are aromatic, but it also eats herbs, grass, and the tops of flowers.

To eat it tastes much like a Rabbit. It is recorded that one gentleman

caught two young ones which he kept for some time. They became very

tame, and as they were allowed the run of the house would follow him

about, jump on to his lap, or creep into his bed for the sake of the

warmth. One brought home by Mr. Hennah would also run inquisitively

about the cabins, climbing up and examining every person and thing, but

startled by any noise, it would run away and hide itself. When shut up

for long, it became savage and snarled and tried to bite at everything

that came in its way. This animal, both when wild as well as when tame,

is very cleanly in its habits. From its faintly crying in its sleep

it may be supposed that it dreams. It has also been heard to chew its

food at night. When tame it will eat a variety of things, the leaves

of plants, bruised Indian corn, raw potatoes, bread, and onions, and

will greedily lick up salt. The one brought home by Mr. Hennah was very

sensible of the cold, for when a candle was placed near its cage, it

would come as close as possible to the bars, and sit still to receive

as much warmth as it could. I am inclined to think that the female does

not produce more than two young ones at a time, from having observed in

several instances but two following the old ones. Its name at the Cape

is the Dasse, which is, I believe, the Dutch for a Badger.”

[Illustration: SKULL OF CONEY.]

In structure, the skull of the Hyrax approaches more nearly to that

of the Ungulata (animals with hoofs), especially to that of the

Rhinoceros, than it does to that of any of the Rodents. The nose of

the Hyrax, however, not having any horn to support, the nasal bones

are not thickened, as they are in the Rhinoceros. There is a marked

distinction between the maxillary, or upper jaw-bones of the Hyrax and

those of the Rodents, the extent of the former being much smaller. In

the former, also, there are two parietal bones, as compared with one

in the latter. The joint, or condyle of the lower jaw, differs from

that of the Rodents, in which it is compressed longitudinally, while

in the Hyrax it is compressed transversely, as in the Ungulata, being

also applied to a plane surface of the temporal bone, whereby a motion

more or less horizontal is permitted. The Hyrax has no canine teeth.

The upper incisors resemble those of Rabbits and Hares in number, which

are four in the adult, and those of Rodents generally in the possession

of persistent pulps. In shape they approach more to the form of the

canines of the Hippopotamus by terminating in a point. The number of

lower incisors is also four, and they are procumbent somewhat like

those of the Hog. The grinders, both in number and form, resemble those

of the Rhinoceros.

[Illustration: DENTITION OF CONEY.]

With regard to the number of ribs, the Hyrax approaches nearer to the

Ungulata and Proboscidea than it does to the Rodents. It departs from

the former in the number of the vertebræ and form of the pelvis; but

again approaches them in the form of the femora (thigh bones), and also

in the formation of the feet; the toes are four in front and three

behind, as in the Tapir, and they are supplied with hoofs, or rounded

hoof-like nails. They are without collar-bones (clavicles). The body

of the Hyrax is covered with thick hair, which is here and there beset

with bristles, and the tail is represented by a mere tubercle. No

remains of the Hyrax have yet been found in a fossil state.

W. BOYD DAWKINS.

H. W. OAKLEY.

[Illustration: KIANG, OR WILD ASS OF TIBET.]

ORDER UNGULATA (HOOFED QUADRUPEDS).

CHAPTER I.

PERISSODACTYLA--THE EQUIDÆ, OR HORSE FAMILY.

Order _UNGULATA_--Divisions--PERISSODACTYLA--Characteristics--EQUIDÆ

--Species--Descent--First Domestic Horses in Europe--Used for

Food--Mention of the Horse in the Bible--War-Chariots--the Horse

among the Greeks and Romans--in Britain--Attempts to Improve

the Breed--Colour--Teeth--“The Mark”--the Foot--Skull--Disease

from the Gad-fly--RACE-HORSE--TROTTING-HORSE OF AMERICA--DRAY

HORSE--SHETLAND PONY--ARAB AND BARB--PERSIAN HORSE--WILD HORSES IN

AMERICA--Habits--Byron’s “Mazeppa”--Capture and Breaking in--WILD

HORSES IN AUSTRALIA--THE ASS--Species--Stripes--Characteristics--MULE

AND HINNY--WILD ASS OF TIBET--ONAGER--WILD ASS OF ABYSSINIA--ZEBRAS

--BURCHELL’S ZEBRA--QUAGGA--FOSSIL EQUIDÆ--Distribution--HIPPARION.

The hoofed quadrupeds are so called because they possess hoofs, from

which fact the order Ungulata takes its name,[260] and they include

animals of widely different appearance, such as the Horse, Rhinoceros,

Giraffe, Camel, and the like. They are classified into two sub-orders,

according to the odd or even number of toes, those having an odd number

on the hind foot being termed the Perissodactyla,[261] such as the

Horse, Tapir, and Rhinoceros; and the Artiodactyla,[262] or animals

with an even number of toes on their hind feet, such as the Pig,

Hippopotamus, Sheep, Ox, Deer, and the like. All the animals belonging

to the order feed upon vegetables, with the exception of the Pig and

Peccary, which are omnivorous; and none of them are provided with

sharp-edged cutting back teeth, adapted for dividing flesh, such as are

found in the Carnivora--Lions, Tigers, Wolves, and Hyænas. The odd-toed

Ungulates come first.

SUB-ORDER PERISSODACTYLA.

The odd-toed animals consist of three living families--(1) The Equidæ,

or Horses; (2) the Tapiridæ, or Tapirs; (3) the Rhinocerotidæ, or

Rhinoceroses; and two extinct families--(1) the Palæotheridæ, or

Palæotheres (παλαιός, old; θηρίον, beast); and (2) the Macraucheniadæ

(μακρός, long; αὐχήν, neck). In all the animals belonging to the group,

the number of dorso-lumbar vertebræ is not fewer than twenty-two,

the third or middle digit of each foot is symmetrical, the femur or

thigh-bone has a third trochanter, or knob of bone on the outer side,

and the two facets on the front of the astragalus or ankle-bone are

very unequal. When the head is provided with horns, they are skin-deep

only, without a core of bone, and they are always placed in the middle

line of the skull, as in the Rhinoceros.

In the Perissodactyla the number of toes is reduced to a minimum.

Supposing, for example, we compare the foot of a Horse with one of

our own hands, we shall see that those parts which correspond with

the thumb and little finger are altogether absent, while that which

corresponds with the middle finger is largely developed, and with its

hoof, the equivalent of our nail, constitutes the whole foot. The small

splint bones, however, resting behind the principal bone of the foot

represent those portions (metacarpals) of the second and fourth digits

which extend from the wrist to the fingers properly so called, and are

to be viewed as traces of a foot composed of three toes in an ancestral

form of the Horse, which we shall discuss presently. In the Tapir,

the hind foot is composed of three well-developed toes, corresponding

to the three middle toes in man, and in the Rhinoceros both feet are

provided with three toes formed of the same three digits. In the

extinct Palæotherium also, the foot is constituted very much as in the

Rhinoceros.

FAMILY I.--EQUIDÆ, THE HORSE-TRIBE.

[Illustration: TARPAN.]

The Equidæ, or Horse-tribe, comprise several living and many extinct

species. Three living members are restricted, in a state of nature, to

Asia and Africa, and are divided into the true Horses, which have horny

patches or callosities on the inner sides of both pairs of limbs--above

the wrist in the fore, and on the inner side of the metatarsus on the

hind limbs--and the Asses, which possess such callosities only on the

fore-limb. With the latter are classed the Zebras and the Quaggas.

All the existing and some of the extinct members of the family, are

characterised by the feet being formed of one perfectly developed digit

or toe only, the others being present in a rudimentary shape as the

splint-bones. In the extinct Hipparion, however, and Anchithere, as we

shall see presently, the accessory toes are well developed.

[Illustration: WILD HORSE OF TARTARY.]

The true Horses are represented by one well-established species,

_Equus caballus_, from which all the other races, or varieties, are

descended, by a process of selection under the care of man, and these

vary in size, proportion of parts, and colour, as much as any two

closely-allied species of wild animals can be said to be defined from

each other. According to Mr. Darwin, no aboriginal or truly Wild Horse

is positively known to exist, for the Wild Horses of the East may

probably be descended from those which have escaped from the service

of man. In all probability the wild animal has been exterminated by

the hand of man in those countries which it formerly inhabited, and in

which it has left its remains to attest its former presence.

The Tarpan and Wild Horse of Tartary, which are to be found in

thousands in the great treeless plains, present us with the nearest

examples of the stock from which the Domestic Horses were probably

derived. Their colour is mouse-coloured, with a stripe along the back.

The best and strongest of these are caught by the Tartars by the aid of

the lasso, and by the help of Falcons, which are trained to settle on

the Horse’s head, and flutter their wings, so as to take its attention

away from the approaching hunter.

The first Domestic Horses known in Europe were introduced at a very

early period, long before the dawn of history, in the period known by

the archæologists as that of polished stone, or that in which man had

not yet acquired a knowledge of the metals bronze or iron. They are met

with in the ruins of those wonderful pile dwellings, which lie at the

bottom of the Swiss lakes, in association with the remains of the Pig,

Sheep, Goat, Short-horned Ox, large Ox of the Urus type, and Dog, and

evidently belonged to a race of farmers, by whom they were introduced

into Europe. Bones occur in the camps, sepulchres, and habitations of

this age, throughout the whole of the Continent, and of Great Britain

and Ireland. In all probability they were used at this time not for

riding or for driving, but for food. In the succeeding, or bronze age,

however, they were employed for purposes of riding, as may be seen from

the discovery of the bronze bits, which have been met with in France

and Italy. They were probably introduced by a race of nomads, who no

doubt brought Horses with them from the steppes of Central Asia.

According to Colonel Hamilton Smith, “so little is known of the

primitive seat of civilisation--the original centre, perhaps, in

Bactria, in the higher valleys of the Oxus, or in Cashmere, whence

knowledge radiated to China, India, and Egypt--that it may be surmised

that the first domestication of the _post-diluvian_ Horse was achieved

in Central Asia, or commenced nearly simultaneously in several regions

where the wild animals of the Horse form existed.”

The Horse was universally used for food by man before the historic

period, and would be used now in Europe more generally than it is, were

it not for an edict of the Church in the eighth century. During the

Roman occupation of Britain, it formed a large part of the diet of the

inhabitants; by the Scandinavians it was eaten in honour of Odin. As

Christianity prevailed over the heathen worship, it was banished from

the table. It appears, however, that it was used in England as late

as the year 787, after it had been prohibited in Eastern Europe. The

ecclesiastic rule, however, was not always obeyed, for the monks of St.

Gall, in Switzerland, not only ate Horse-flesh in the eleventh century,

but returned thanks for it in a metrical grace, which has survived to

our times on account of its elegance and beauty.

It is somewhat remarkable that the Horse is, with few exceptions,

mentioned in the Bible only in connection with war, and that there is

a wonderful absence of detail with regard to its nature and habits

otherwise than for the purposes it served in battle. That the Horse

spoken of in Scripture was nearly identical with the Arab Horse of

to-day there can be little doubt, if we examine the various sculptures

and paintings which are handed down to us, and which speak of the faded

glories of Egypt and Assyria. The first account we have of the Horse

is during the famine in Egypt that was foretold by Joseph, and here we

find that it was evidently an Egyptian animal. “And they brought their

cattle unto Joseph; and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for Horses,

and for the flocks, and for the cattle of the herds, and for the Asses;

and he fed them with bread for all their cattle for that year.”

The courage and fiery nature of the Arab Horse, particularly fitting it

for use in the wars of ancient times, were evidently well understood.

In the Book of Job (xxxix. 19-25) we read:--“Hast thou given the Horse

strength? hast thou clothed his neck with thunder? Canst thou make

him afraid as a grasshopper? the glory of his nostrils is terrible.

He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength: he goeth on

to meet the armed men. He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted;

neither turneth he back from the sword. The quiver rattleth against

him, the glittering spear and the shield. He swalloweth the ground

with fierceness and rage: neither believeth he that it is the sound of

the trumpet. He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha! and he smelleth the

battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.”

The Hebrews in the patriarchal age did not require Horses, and for a

long time after their settlement in Canaan did not use them, probably

partly on account of the nature of the country, which was hilly, and

partly because they were prohibited on account of their hostility to

the Egyptians. The Horses of the kings David and Solomon were derived

from Egypt. In the reign of the latter, a Horse was worth 150 shekels

of silver, and a chariot six hundred. The former was the first to

establish a force of cavalry and chariots.

From the very earliest ages known to the historian in Egypt and

Assyria, Horses were used for purposes of war, and were yoked in pairs,

and sometimes in threes, to the war-chariots in which the kings and

great captains rode. They are generally depicted as being of upright

or Hog manes. Horsemen were also employed by both nations, but they

were evidently not thought so important as Horses and chariots for

warlike purposes.

In the earlier period of Greek history, and in Homeric times, the art

of riding was utterly unknown to the Greeks, for if a man was seen on

horseback he was supposed to be a Centaur. Down to 500 B.C.

riding was not practised by the Greeks, although it was well known

to the Barbarians. As we get close to the year mentioned, we hear

of Persian cavalry; for instance, the great question with regard to

the battle of Marathon (490 B.C.) is, What were the Persian

cavalry doing? And at the same period we find that cavalry had become

an important arm in Northern Greece. Throughout all the times of Greek

pre-eminence, Horses were mainly used for the purpose of the chariot.

The utmost care and attention were devoted to their breeding, and the

greatest expense incurred in the maintenance of a stud, which was a

luxury possible only to the very richest persons, and almost entirely

beyond the means of private individuals. The greatest horsekeepers, and

consequently winners in the chariot-races, were almost entirely princes

and ruling families.

After 450 B.C. we begin to hear of riding and of cavalry in

Greece proper, side by side with charioteers. Books were written on the

art, one of which, from the pen of Xenophon, is still extant.

The case is totally different when we turn to the history of Rome

during the same period. In the early regal times, and in the first

centuries of the Republic, cavalry was the most important arm of the

military service. It was naturally composed of the aristocracy, who

alone could bear the expense of a Horse. It was only when a rich middle

class had sprung up, and were denied the aristocratic privilege of

serving on horseback, that the heavy-armed infantry, which in later

times won all the great Roman victories, came first into existence. As

they increased, the cavalry decreased in importance, and the typical

Roman soldier was what was called in mediæval times a man-at-arms.

The native breeds of Horses in Britain, before the Roman conquest,

are known to us merely from a reference to them by Cæsar, that they

were powerful and well suited for purposes of war by their stature and

training. They were used in the battles of the Romans, yoked to the

chariots. They were evidently considered of great importance, since

they appear on some of the early British coins--as, for example, those

of Cunobelin. After the conquest of Britain by the Angles, Jutes, and

Saxons, the Horses demanded more attention than before. Athelstan

thought the preservation of the native breed of sufficient importance

to call for a legal enactment to prevent the export of Horses,

excepting as presents. Saddle-horses were employed, according to the

testimony of Bede, in England in the early part of the seventh century,

and from the notices in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle it is evident that

they were frequently used by the Danes for purposes of transport from

one part of the country to another; and in the song of the fight of

Maldon, we read of Goderic flying from the field on a Horse, on which

his lord had ridden down to the battle.

The first attempt on record to improve the native breed, by the

introduction of foreign blood, was by the importation of “running

Horses” from Germany in the time of Athelstan; in whose reign also

many Spanish Horses were imported. William the Conqueror, who owed his

success in the Battle of Hastings to his cavalry, paid great attention

to the English breed. In his time, Professor Bell tells us, “Roger de

Belesme, Earl of Shrewsbury, imported the elegant and docile Spanish

Horse, and bred from it on his estates in Powisland; and it is recorded

that the Horses of that part of Wales were long celebrated for their

swiftness, a quality which they had doubtless derived from this happy

mixture of blood. The heavy panoply of mail, however, with which the

warriors of this and of succeeding ages at once protected and loaded

both themselves and their steeds, sufficiently attests that the cavalry

must have been mounted on Horses of great strength and size; and there

is no doubt that, until the universal employment of firearms rendered

such a protection in a great measure unavailable, the speed and figure

of the War Horse must have been sacrificed to the qualities of power

and endurance. The beautiful Horses on which many of our light cavalry

regiments are now mounted, although endowed with considerable strength,

would have been crushed beneath the weight of metal by which both the

knight of olden time and his Horse were so heavily laden.”

King John paid great attention to the improvement of the breed for

agricultural purposes; and to him, according to Youatt, we are indebted

for our Draft Horses. He imported no less than a hundred Flanders

stallions, which probably laid the foundation of the strength and size

which are the eminent characteristic of our Horses of war and labour.

Edward III. was a zealous patron of the course, and in his reign

the heavy native breed was crossed with lighter Horses of Spanish

origin, the offspring of the Arabs, which had been introduced by the

Moors. From this time forwards, great pains were taken by the English

sovereigns to improve the breeds; races were regularly established in

various parts of the kingdom, and various enactments were passed to

secure excellence. James I. gave as much as five hundred pounds--an

enormous sum, according to the value of money in those times--for an

Arabian; and in the Protectorate of Cromwell, Horses were introduced

from the south-east and from Morocco, by which beauty of form, and a

degree of swiftness before unknown, were added to the stoutness which

had hitherto characterised English Horses. In the time of Charles II.,

we may remark that the bell, which had hitherto been the prize of

the successful Horse in racing, was exchanged for the cup, which has

continued to be the prize down to the present day.

Mr. Darwin considers that the cause of modification in the forms of

Horses greatly arises from their varying conditions of life; that, for

instance, Horses living in mountainous regions, or on small islands,

become reduced in size from want of a variety of food. Corsica and

Sardinia have native breeds of Ponies; and the Puno Ponies living in

the lofty regions of the Cordilleras are said to be strange little

creatures. But Horses can withstand intense cold, as they live wild

on the plains of Siberia, where they scrape away the snow in order to

get at the herbage underneath. Not only do the wild Tarpans in the

East possess this instinct, but also those that have run wild on the

Falkland Islands, as well as the Horses in North America descended from

those brought into Mexico by the Spaniards.

That the original colour of the Horse was dun may be gathered from

evidence dating as far back as the time of Alexander the Great, and

the wild Horses now in Western Asia and Eastern Europe are of the same

colour. In Hungary and Norway, duns with a stripe down the spine are

considered of an aboriginal colour.

[Illustration: DENTITION OF HORSE.

(A) upper, (B) lower, jaw.]

The series of permanent teeth in the Horse consists of three incisors,

one canine, three premolars, and three molars in each jaw, or 40 in

all; and is of great interest. The grinders (or molars and premolars)

are remarkable for their length, the complexity of their pattern, and

for the thick coating of cement which fills up the interspaces of the

folds of enamel. The incisors present a peculiar pattern, which is of

great importance in deciding the age of a Horse. Each is covered with a

layer of enamel, which is folded inwards at the top, after the manner

of the finger of a glove, the top of which has been pulled inwards, as

is seen in the accompanying figure of a vertical section of an incisor

tooth. This hollow is filled with cement, and its state of wear enables

the age of the Horse to be ascertained, constituting “the mark.”

[Illustration: VERTICAL SECTION OF INCISOR OF HORSE.

(_After Owen._)

_e_, enamel; _c_, cement; _a a′_, inverted fold of enamel, &c. (“the

mark”).]

A Colt when born has usually the first and second molars forced through

the gum, and at seven or eight days old the two central incisor teeth

appear; five or six weeks later, the next two incisors. At three

months, they are equal to the central ones, and both pairs have nearly

reached their natural level. A third grinder has then appeared; and

about the eighth month, the third incisor above and below on each

side. The Colt has now his full complement of incisor teeth--viz.,

six in each jaw. At six months the obliteration is apparent in the

four central incisors; and at a year and a half the mark will be

very faint in the central incisors, and diminished in the other two.

A fourth molar appears at twelve months, and a fifth at two years.

These are all milk or temporary teeth. At about three years old, the

central pair of incisors, or nippers, both in the upper and lower

jaws, are pushed upwards and removed by two permanent teeth, which

take their place, and which are distinguishable from the milk teeth

by their increased size; a three-year-old Colt, therefore, is easily

recognised by the possession of these two new and enlarged incisors.

At three years and a half the second incisors will have given place

to permanent ones; and at four and a half the remaining incisors will

have followed suit. Thus at four years old the central nippers will be

fully grown; the next pair will not have attained their full size, and

the corner temporary incisors will be worn small, and the mark nearly

obliterated. At five years old the mark from the central teeth begins

to be effaced, the next pair fully grown, and the corner pair only

partially grown. Between the fourth and fifth year the canines begin to

appear in the male, two in each jaw; in the female they do not appear

until old age. At six years old the mark on the central nippers is

much diminished, or obliterated. The other incisors will also be worn,

and the canines fully developed. At seven the mark on the next pair

of incisors is nearly gone, and the canines rounded at the point and

edges. At eight the mark disappears from all the incisor teeth, and the

canines are much rounder and blunter. From this time the age of a Horse

is difficult to decide, and the teeth of the upper jaw seem to be the

best guides. In the accompanying figure (B) the incisors of a

Horse aged sixteen years are represented, in which it will be observed

that the oval island of enamel, or “mark,” has been obliterated, and

its place is indicated by a round, dark, island (A), composed

of osteo-dentine, which has been formed within the pulp-cavity of the

tooth. The absence of the fine white crystalline enamel from the centre

of the tooth at once points out the aged Horse from that “in mark,” and

renders all attempts to produce by artificial means the same pattern

impossible, though this trick is by no means unknown or unattempted in

horse-dealing.

[Illustration: INCISORS AND CANINES OF HORSE (B) AND MARE

(A).]

[Illustration: BONES OF FORE (1) AND HIND (2) LIMBS OF HORSE.

A, Carpus (knee); A1, Tarsus (hock); B,

Cannon bone; B1, Splint bone; C, Greater Posterior;

D, Coronet; E, Coffin bone; F, Navicular.]

In the whole anatomy of the Horse there is no organ more beautifully

adapted for the purposes it serves than the foot, and it is well worthy

to be discussed at some length. The foot practically consists of the

three last bones of the limb. The bones are firmly bound together by

ligaments, affording also attachment to the wonderfully strong tendons

by which the foot is moved. A mass of gristle called the lateral

cartilage is placed on each side, and behind the bones is an elastic

pad which is termed the plantar cushion. A fibrous layer is placed

over these, and enveloping the whole is a horny covering known as the

hoof. Immediately below the carpus, or the so-called knee of the Horse,

in the fore limb, and below the tarsus or hock in the hind limb, we

find what are termed the cannon bones. These, which differ little in

either fore or hind leg, are really, in point of fact, respectively

the metacarpal and metatarsal bones. On each side, towards the hinder

part of these cannon bones, is a bone termed the splint. These splints

are in fact rudimentary metacarpal and metatarsal bones. The cannon

bones run in a direction vertically downwards, and in the best possible

manner for supporting a heavy weight, and in addition the bones are

composed of extraordinarily hard and dense material, although to all

appearance they are comparatively slender. Altogether, the object

looked for is attained--namely, strength with symmetry. The cannon or

shank bone proceeds downwards until it reaches a bone known as the

greater pastern, and between these two are also two little bones,

termed the sesamoids: this portion of the leg is called the fetlock.

The sesamoid bones are attached to the back of the cannon bone, and are

so arranged as to increase the surface of the joint, and also forming

a pulley for the passage of the back tendons. The pastern bone rests

immediately upon a bone termed the little pastern or coronet, the

former bone being placed obliquely downwards and forwards, being an

admirable provision against concussion. It is here, in proportion to

the oblique position in which this bone is placed, the horseman finds

either a springy or jolting action in the Horse he rides. The little

pastern or coronet rests upon a bone known as the coffin. (The three

bones--viz., the greater pastern, the little and the coffin bone--are

really nothing more nor less than three phalanges, the three together

being analogous to the human finger or toe.) It is situated partly

within and partly without the hoof, and its direction, like the greater

pastern, is downwards and forwards, and it is this bone which forms the

pivot or centre of motion.

[Illustration: SKELETON OF HORSE.]

The last bone of the foot, and immediately below the little pastern,

as before stated, is the coffin or pedal bone. This bone is strongly

imbedded in the hoof, and is convex in front, rounded at the sides, and

slightly concave on its under surface. There is around the front and

sides of the coffin bone a considerable degree of roughness for the

attachment of muscles, which part of the foot is termed the sensitive.

The under part is comparatively smooth. Between the coffin and little

pastern is a small oblong flattened bone, termed the navicular. It is

covered over on its under surface by a smooth cartilaginous layer.

This bone probably helps to ward off concussion, also to give a larger

surface for membranes containing synovial fluid, or what is known as

“joint oil,” which preserves the joints from too great friction.

The more striking features in the skull of the Horse are the completion

of the orbital ring behind by the union of the frontal and jugal bones,

and the edentulous space in front of the molar series, into which the

bit is inserted in riding or driving. The brain is large, and that part

of it known as the cerebrum, or “big brain” (A), is deeply folded; it

does not, however, overlap the cerebellum, or “little brain” (B),

or the olfactory lobes (C). The spinal column is composed of seven

cervical, twenty-four dorsal, five sacral, and about seventeen caudal

vertebræ.