of the back, and it’s body is withal so enormously bulky, that the belly reaches nearerthe ground than could be easily conceived of that of a creature of such height : thehead is large, and of a kind of ovated figure, large and broad at the temples, andsmaller to the mouth : the extremity is continued to a great length, in form of a pro-boscis or trunk, which it uses, in the place of a hand, to reach it’s food to it’s mouth ;and, on other occasions, to save the trouble of much motion in it’s unwieldy body :from the sides of the upper jaw there grow two teeth of so enormous a length andsize, that, to those who have not seen the animal, it appears scarce to be conceived,that any creature can carry them ; these are what furnishes us with ivory, and we feethem of between three and four hundred pounds weight the pair: the mouth is small,in proportion to the bigness of the creature; but, besides these enormous teeth whichhang out of it, there are in each jaw four grinders confined and hid within it, whichare of a scarce less surprizing magnitude and structure ; they are composed, as it were,each of many other smaller teeth joined together, and they are oblong, high, flatted,and level at the top, excepting for some transverse, undulated ridges, by means ofwhich they grind their food.
The eyes are very small, in proportion to the bulk of the head : the ears are largeand membranaceous; the legs are of an amazing thickness, and the feet are verybroad; they are not covered each with a single hoof, in the manner of the base, butis divided into toes ; these, however, do not stand separate, as in the generality of qua-drupeds, but adhere one to the other, and are all covered by the fame common skin,only the extremities of them appear at the verge of the foot, and they are there armedwith broad and obtuse claws or nails: the tail is small, short, and inconsiderable.
The whole body is covered with an extreamly thick and strong skin, of a kind ofmouse colour, with an admixture of tawny ; it is not naked, as some have asserted,but has a few long and very rigid hairs growing at distances on it: it is all over cove-red also with a kind of tubercles and excrescences resembling warts, which are splitdeeply in several parts, and in different directions, down from the surface; these areof a somewhat darker colour than the rest of the skin, and, when they are cut, havea great resemblance of whale-bone : these tubercles, though divided and cracked inthis manner, adhere, in a very firm degree, to the skin, so that it is impossible totear off either a whole one, or even but a part of one, without separating a portionof the skin with it.
The proboscis or trunk of the elephant is, properly speaking, nothing but the nosecontinued to a greater length; the substance of it is firm, but fleshy, and it is com-posed of three series or orders of fibres: the creature has, among the variety of mo-tions which it can give, this singular organ or power of retracting or protruding it for-ward with great violence ; and the difference of it’s length, when thus contracted orextended, is not less than from one foot to five, or more. The afpera arteria or wind-pipe h large, and has no epiglottis to defend it from the entrance of any thing; it isquite distinct from the œsophagus, so that there is no danger of any thing gettingdown it in the creature’s swallowing it’s food, or drink; but it would be veryeasy for any little animal, that made it’s way in at the aperture of the trunk, to creepdown into the lungs; and, to defend itself against this, it always steeps with it’s trunk,applied* close to the ground at the extremity, so. that nothing but air can get in.
The ears, which are very large, are dentated round the edges, and they hang in anirregular pendulous manner, nor are ever erected, except when the creature is pro-. voked, at the fame time that these are contracted, and in some degree erected, for itis but in an imperfect manner that the elephant has this in it’s power: the snout isalso contracted to it’s shortest dimensions, so as to be held in readiness to dart out onthe enemy with full violence : the foals of the feet are not covered with any thing hornyor firm, but with a mere skin, and this indeed thinner than that of the rest of the bo-dy, and easily cut through with a knife. The eminences in the circumference of the’ foot are five; they are short, and answer to so many toes; and under the stein whichcovers the toes, down to the division of these, there is lodged a great quantity of fatfor the keeping them soft, and preventing their rubbing against one another: the