I’m fortunate in being ready to put on document an instance of elephant memory of a really interesting type, and one which serves to point out in a extremely typical manner the remembrance by these animals of kindness, and likewise of the reverse remedy. But the reminiscence of kindnesses is equaled in the elephant by that which recalls acts of harm to remembrance. Hence, as Mr. Darwin believes that in man the violent contraction of the muscles round the eyes is connected with the stream of tears, it would appear by analogy to be a reputable inference that the Indian elephant has attained the next stage within the expression of its feelings than its African neighbor. Hence, it behooves us to make the acquaintance, firstly, of their current distribution, and secondly of their distribution and growth in previous ages, if we are to understand with any degree of completeness and psychological satisfaction the relations of the elephantine races. The distribution of the elephant on the earth because it now exists could also be disposed of in a very few phrases.
Suddenly the words had escaped her, he had answered, and it was throughout-over earlier than they knew it. And that, for a time, was the sum complete of all I knew about myself. Thus it was clear that, after an interval of 5 years, “Lizzie” had recognized an old good friend in Mr. Turley, and that, moreover, she remembered him with a sense of gratitude for his profitable endeavors to relieve the ache from which she had suffered. Observing that in 1881 the menagerie had once more visited Tenbury, I wrote to Mr. Turley, inquiring if “Lizzie” had once more acknowledged her outdated friend. In 1874 Wombwell’s menagerie visited Tenbury, in Gloucestershire, and on that occasion the female elephant, “Lizzie” by name, drank a big amount of cold water when heated after an extended walk-the animal, as a consequence, being attacked with severe internal spasms. Instances are quite a few, for example, when an elephant has refused to cross a bridge esteemed protected by his human guides, but which has collapsed with the animal’s weight, when, goaded and tortured to proceed, he has superior in despair, solely to seek out himself immersed in the water below. But, the provision of food falling quick and elephantine chagrin being aroused, the elephant, drawing up water into his trunk, coolly showered it down upon the unlucky painter and his sketch, drenching the one, and rendering: the opposite useless.
The menagerie in due course went its method; however, in May, 1879, it again visited Tenbury, and, as Mr. Turley stood at his store-door watching the zoölogical procession move down the street, the elephant stepped out of the ranks, crossed from one facet of the street to the other, and, having advanced to Mr. Turley, placed her trunk round his hand and held it firmly, at the identical time making, as Mr. Turley informs me, a peculiar grunting noise, as if by means of welcome. Within the eyes of the modern naturalist, the current of any residing being is not merely sure up in its past development, but the prevailing situations of any race turn into explicable in many circumstances only when the former vary of the group in time has been ascertained. Remarking that the Indian species is known to weep, Mr. Darwin quotes Sir Emerson Tennent, who says that some “lay motionless on the ground, with no different indication of suffering than the tears which suffused their eyes and flowed incessantly.” Another elephant, “when overpowered and made quick,” exhibited great grief; “his violence sank to utter prostration, and he lay on the ground, uttering choking cries, with tears trickling down his cheeks.” “Within the Zoölogical Gardens,” says Darwin, “the keeper of the Indian elephants positively asserts that he has a number of occasions seen tears rolling down the face of the old female, when distressed by the removing of the young one.” Mr. Darwin also makes the attention-grabbing statement that, when the Indian elephant “trumpets,” the orbicular muscles of the eyes contract, whereas in the “trumpeting” of the African species these muscles do not act.
Mr. Darwin, on the authority of the late Dr. Falconer, tells us that the Indian species fights in diverse fashions, decided by the position and curvature of his tusks. Darwin, “may be very faithful to his driver or keeper, and probably considers him because the chief of the herd. Dr. Hooker informs me that an elephant which he was riding in India turned so deeply bogged that he remained caught fast till the subsequent day, when he was extricated by men with ropes. Under such circumstances elephants will seize with their trunks any object, useless or alive, to put under their knees to prevent their sinking deeper within the mud; and the driver was dreadfully afraid lest the animal should have seized Dr. Hooker and crushed him to dying. But the driver himself, as Dr. Hooker was assured, ran no danger. This forbearance, beneath an emergency so dreadful for a heavy animal, is a wonderful proof of noble fidelity.” Swainson offers a description of the sagacity of an elephant beneath such circumstances which is worth quoting in the current instance: “The cylindrical type of an elephant’s leg-which is almost of equal thickness-causes the animal to sink very deep in heavy floor, particularly in the muddy banks of small rivers. When thus situated, the animal will endeavor to lie on his facet, so as to avoid sinking deeper, and, for this goal, will avail himself of every means to obtain relief. The usual mode of extricating him is way the same as when he is pitted; that is, by supplying him liberally with straw, boughs, grass, and so on.; these materials being thrown to the distressed animal, he forces them down together with his trunk, till they are lodged beneath his fore-feet in sufficient quantity to resist his stress. Having thus formed a adequate basis for exertion, the sagacious animal next proceeds to thrust other bundles under his belly, and as far again underneath his flanks as he can reach; when such a foundation is formed as may be, in his thoughts, correct to proceed upon, he throws his complete weight forward, and will get his hind-feet steadily upon the straw, etc. Being once confirmed on a solid footing, he will subsequent place the succeeding bundles earlier than him, urgent them well along with his trunk, so as to form a causeway by which to reach the agency ground. . . . He will not bear any weight, undoubtedly, till, by trial each with his trunk and the following foot that’s to be planted, he has fully satisfied himself of the firmness of the bottom he is to tread upon. . . . The anxiety of the animal when bemired forms a powerful contrast with the pleasure he so strongly evinces on arriving at terra firma” Such an account turns into extremely attention-grabbing, as convincing us that a lot, if not all, of the sagacity which is known as forth by such circumstances must be inherent and original, versus that gained by experience.
