November 110 wo(x^ opon it, and o f a' river being between them, O-ynJ they could not dare to advance and fire at thefe animals. I will not diflemble, that though I have not the leaft oc- cafion to doubt the veracity o f m y informer, and though what he told me is b y no means impoifible, I yet find great difficulty in this matter. But on the other hand, the fame may be faid o f M. d e Bu f f o n ’s, or the common opinion; firft, as they have not been able to confirm it b y the teftimony o f any eye-witnefs, nor even by any in - ftance o f this kind in other quadrupeds properly fo called ; that is, in fuch animals as have fome degree o f affinity with elephants ; fecondly, as the female’s ly in g on her back can hardly be more convenient for the male, efpecially as the vagina, according to what I am told, goes from the fore part backwards ; thirdly, it is befides well known, that the older elephants, on account o f the unwieldinefs o f their bodies, chiefly itand when they fleep, in order to avoid the trouble and difficulty o f ly in g down and getting up again. T a v e r n ie r , indeed, in his third volume, informs us, that the tame females when in rut make themfelves a kind o f bed, and lay themfelves in it on their backs; at the fame time inviting the male elephant b y a peculiar cry, 8cc. but as the author did not fee this himfelf, and that befides i t is entirely contrary to thé mo- defty and diflike to copulation for which the female elephants have always been remarked, I cannot do otherwife than leave M. T a v e r n ie r ’s relation and different opinions touching the fubjedt, to the teft o f future experience * . With * Compare with the foregoing account that given by W o l f with refpeft to this, fubjeâ, in a book juft publiihed, called u T h e Life and Adventures o f John Chriftopher With regaid to the time that the female elephants go '775- with young, I could get no information ; but that their v!^yn!7 ’ cubs fuck with their trunks, is confirmed by the obferva- tions o f many. The female elephants have, moreover, been feen followed by two or three cubs at a time, though o f very different fizes, viz. from three to eight or nine feet high ; but the largeft o f them, which confequently was almoft full grown, was, neverthelefs, to the great afto- nifhment o f the huntfman, fuckled by the mother. And when it fo happens, as is not unfrequently the cafe, that by a female being ihot, an infant-cub has been deprived of its mother, and at the fame time been feparated from the other elephants, it has endeavoured to aflbciate with the hunters and their horfes, in the place of its deceafed mother, and followed them wherever they went. With re-' gard to this, feveral farmers affured me, that they could get fome milch-cows from the Hottentots in the way of barter, or take fome from home along with them, to rear the elephant’s cubs with, in cafe they had any tolerable encouragement given them by the governor : but, perhaps, in defedt of milch-cows, which, in fadt, are rather difficult to be had there, they may bring up the young elephants with gruel or porridge, or elfe with decodtions, or other pher Wolf, with his Voyage to Ceylon.” This author pretends to have had as much experience m regard to elephants, as the generality o f jockres in England with refpea to horfes ; and pofitively afferts, that the female lies on her back on this occafion at eonsatoethemH | 1Vlng f c>rcï ! " ftantial «kfcription o f the whole procefs. In the Addi- ment Torn nrry v l ElePhanta * * feh M . d e B ü f f o n has given in his Supplement Tom. III. (ed. jn 4to) and T om. V I . p. ,6 5, (ed. in i 2mo) a M B l e s K oT does here“ IOn °f | | e,' phants in Cèfion> in the fame manner as farmer U u 2 preparations
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