ey bestow their caresses. A tame
elephant, in the Jardin des Plantes, took a great fancy to a little
girl, who used to walk in the menagerie every morning with her nurse,
before it was open to the public. It constantly happened that she and
the elephant would be met together, and not only was his care to avoid
trampling upon her most excessive, but if she were going the same way,
he would gently insinuate the end of his proboscis under her arm,
lovingly rest it there, and walk by her side. Great pains are always
taken by these animals to guard their trunks from injury; and they
constantly raise them as high in the air as they can, to prevent their
coming in contact with any hurtful substance. With them food is procured
and conveyed to the mouth; and they pull down, not only branches of
trees, but, in many instances, the trees themselves.

The immense skull and neck, and in fact, the size of the body, required
to sustain the weight of this ponderous organ, and the tusks with which
they are provided, give elephants a clumsy, heavy look. The proportions
of the head cause the eyes to look small; the weight of the head itself
is, however, much diminished by the hollow cavities in front, which make
it almost a vain attempt to try to kill an elephant by shooting him in
the forehead; for the balls lodge in these cells: they so protect the
brain, which is the seat of feeling, that fearful buttings are practised
with impunity by these animals.

The teeth of elephants are remarkable; for they consist of only one
large grinder on each side, and in each jaw, which looks like a bundle
of smaller teeth, fastened together by intervening and surrounding
plates of enamel. These grinders change frequently during the life of
the animal, perhaps even six or eight times, as long as the jaw grows;
and the new arrivals do not come from below, but are formed behind the
old one, and push it out. There are no other teeth, properly so called,
but in the upper jaw are two tusks, which supply the ivory of commerce,
and which are changed once during the life of the animal. Their enormous
weight and size are almost fabulous, and combined with the trunk, make
us cease to wonder that the whole body should have strength alone as its
attribute, and be entirely wanting in grace. One of these tusks, sold at
Amsterdam, weighed 350 pounds, and with such weapons as these, aptly
called _defenses_ by the French, they are able to uproot enormous trees,
and catch