>775- This which they were now feafting upon they fup- pofed to be a young male, as the tuiks were rather of the fmalleft, being no more than three feet long, and its largeft grinders not above four inches in breadth; while the grinder of an . elephant which I got from fome other ele- phant-hunters at the Cape, and now preferve in the cabinet of the Royal Academy o f Sciences, is nine inches broad, and weighs four pounds and a h alf; though it bears evident marks of having been the fartheft tooth- in the jaw, and o f not being grown to its full fize, having beefi enclofed in the gum to about two-thirds of its breadth. The diftance from the root to the top of the tooth, or its elevation above the focket, feems to have been three inches. The ears of the elephant ihot at this place, were reported to have reached from the ihoulders o f a middle- lized Hottentot down to the ground. One of the fore legs, which had been brought to the farm, lay there as yet un- difledted. The hide was not near fo compact and clofe as thofe of the rhinoceros and hippopotamus, but the texture of it feemed to be compofed of larger tubes and blood-veflels; at the fame time that the external furface o f it was more uneven, wrinkled, and knotty, and therefore cannot be ufed for making whips, as are the hides of the animals juft mentioned. The foot was almoft round, meafuring very little more acrofs than the leg, which was hardly one foot in diameter. The toes ihould be always five in number, but the hoofs vary in that refpeft, according to the obfervation o f M. B u f f o n , Tom. XI. p. 6 8 . In this fpecimen I found only four, the largeft of which feemed to have been on the outiide of the foot, and the fmalleft fmalleft were but one inch each in diameter. The fkin N *7^ under the foot, did not feem to be thicker or o f a firmer ' texture than that o f the other parts o f the body. It was fuppofed, that the elephant which was ihot here, had been driven away from its herd by fome other males ftronger than itfelf out o f Sitficamma, in the thick forefts o f which the elephants may find an afylum; or, to fpeak more properly, be fortified againft the attacks o f their enemies : for as to Lange Kloof, and other places which the Chriftians had begun to inhabit, thefe animals were obliged immediately to retire from them. The chace o f the elephant here mentioned was, according to the account given by the hunters themfelves, (a couple o f farmers) carried on in the following manner. On the very evening on which they faw this huge animal, they immediately refolved to purfue it on horfeback ; though they were fo far from being ikilful and pra&ifed elephant-hunters, that they never before fet eyes upon one o f thefe animals. This probably, however, according to their defcription, was not lefs than eleven or twelve feet h ig h ; while, on the other hand, the largeft of this ipecies are faid to reach to the height o f fifteen or fixteen feet *. Their horfes, though as much unufed as their riders to the fight o f this colofial animal, yet did not flinch in the leaft. The animal, likewife, did not feem to trouble him- * I f this be the cafe, the Afiatic elephants are much inferior to the African in point o f f iz e : as M r, W o l f , who was nineteen years in Ceylon, where thefe animals are largeft, and who had opportunities o f getting the beft information concerning them, speaks o f twelve feet, or fix German ells, as being a great height, and mentions an olephant o f twelve feet and an inch in height, as a great curiofity. Vide W o l e ’ s Voyage to Ceylon, juft published.
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