Once, when visiting the herd of elephants owned by Mr. Barnum, the trainer called my attention to a small hole, or opening of a gland, situated on each side of the head between the eye and the ear, that is scarcely perceptible. It is the opening of a duct, perhaps two inches in length, that extends toward the lachrymal organs, and leads to a secretory gland. From this orifice, there exudes at times a thick, gummy substance, which sometimes clogs up the opening, and undoubtedly affects the animal unpleasantly; as, when this is filled, the trainer told me that the elephant would take a small stick or straw in its trunk, and endeavor to remove the obstruction. This will be alluded to in the chapter on Rogue Elephants. This exudation is generally considered a warning in the East, that the elephant is going to be ugly, and is called must. In Asiatic wild elephants it occurs usually in cold weather, from November to February. This peculiarity has been noticed from the earliest times: it was remarked upon by Strabo, and is referred to in Hindoo mythology. “The Hindoo poets frequently allude to the fragrant juice which oozes, at certain seasons, from small ducts in the temples of the male elephant, and is useful in relieving him from the redundant moisture with which he is then oppressed; and they even describe the bees as allured by the scent, and mistaking it for that of the sweetest flowers. When Crishna visited Sanc’ha-dwip, and had destroyed the demon who infested that delightful country, he passed along the bank of a river, and was charmed with a delicious odor which its waters diffused in their course. He was eager to view the source of so fragrant a stream, but was informed by the natives that it flowed from the temples of an elephant, immensely large, milk-white, and beautifully formed; that he governed a numerous race of elephants, and the odoriferous fluid which exuded from his temples had formed the river.”
It is evident that wild elephants probe this opening, which is a little larger than a pin-head, and that the sticks used often break off in the orifice, and by working in give the animals such agony that they go mad for the time. When Mr. Cowper Rose shot an elephant in Africa, the men immediately began to hunt for the “piece of wood in the head, to which they attached great value as a charm.” Mr. Rose was evidently not familiar with the gland, or opening. He says, “I sat on one (a dead elephant) while they searched for the wood in his head. It lies about an inch beneath the skin, embedded in fat, just above the eye, and has the appearance of a thorn, or a small piece of twig broken off. Some are without it: and, on examining the spot minutely, we found that there was a small opening in the skin,—a large pore, it may be; and I conceive that this phenomenon is simply accounted for by the twig breaking in this hole when the animal is in the act of rubbing his head against the bushes.”
The body of the elephant, weighing sometimes three tons, is supported by four ponderous, pillar-like legs, the movements of which, especially the posterior, or hinder pair attract immediate attention; and the first impression is, that the hind-legs of the elephant are entirely different from those of any other mammal. They seem to bend in the wrong direction. The difference consists merely in the greater length of the thigh-bone, or femur, which brings the knee much farther down than in other animals. The horse is equally remarkable for an opposite reason; as it walks and stands upon the toe-nail of its single toe, while its heel is as high up as the knee of the elephant is low. Covering this wonderful frame, or skeleton, is the loose, wrinkled skin an inch thick, so tough and heavy,—often weighing eight hundred pounds,—that the elephant and others were at one time included in a group called the thick-skinned animals (pachyderms). The skin is comparatively hairless; though some elephants have more than others, and young ones more than adults. The theory generally accepted, is that the elephants of southern countries have lost their hair by long-continued residence in regions where it was not necessary. Quite recently two young or dwarfed Asiatic elephants were exhibited in New York as mammoths, on account of their superabundance of hair; but it is needless to say that they were ordinary Asiatic elephants.
In the present work, it is not necessary to refer particularly to the internal organization of the elephant, but the subject is replete with interest. The enormous heart, a foot in diameter, in its contraction exerts tons of pressure; and the blood forced out by it must attain almost the force of water from the hose of a fire-engine. Hunters have often been astonished at seeing elephants, which they have been chasing for some time, insert their trunks into their mouths, and there obtain a supply of water that is blown over the dry and heated body. The explanation of this is, that the stomach of the elephant resembles that of the camel, in having a chamber that can be cut off or separated from the digestive cavity, in which about ten gallons of water is stored as a reserve supply, or to be used as occasion requires.
The female elephant is generally smaller than the male. The mammary glands are situated between the fore-legs, and the calf nurses with its mouth, instead of the trunk as was once supposed. The period of gestation is about five hundred and ninety-seven days. The weight of the elephant at birth differs in individuals. One observed by Owen weighed one hundred and seventy-five pounds, and stood two feet ten inches in height. The little elephant Bridgeport weighed two hundred and forty-five pounds at birth, and stood three feet in height. The baby elephant America, born in Philadelphia, weighed two hundred and thirteen and a half pounds, and measured thirty-four inches and a half at the shoulder. It grew so rapidly, that in eleven months it gained about seven hundred pounds,—not so very surprising, as it came of a very heavy family. Its mother weighed seven thousand and twenty pounds, and was only twenty-three years old; and the father, who was three years older, four tons. The baby’s trunk, or proboscis, was at first twelve inches long, and nine inches in circumference at the root, or base.
The young Asiatic elephant grows about eleven inches in the first year, eight in the second, six inches in the third, five in the fourth, five in the fifth, in the sixth three and a half, and in the seventh, two and a half, the measurements having been made by Mr. Corse.
CHAPTER II.
HABITS AND WAYS OF ELEPHANTS.
The most favorable locality to observe wild elephants in India is in Mysore, where the western ghats, the Billiga-rungun hills, and the Goondulpet and Kákankoté forests, afford fine opportunities to the naturalist and sportsman to observe the largest of living land animals in the haunts of its choice. It is here that the elephant-catcher of the British Government, Mr. George P. Sanderson, makes his headquarters, and has obtained such signal success for many years.