The wild elephant and the method of capturing and taming it in Ceylon . ess ascribable to the animals love of coolness andsolitude ; but it is not altogether unconnected with theposition of the eye, and the circumscribed use which itspecuhar mode of life permits it to make of the facultyof sicjht. 26 The Wild Elephant. All the elephant hunters and nati\-es witli whom I havespoken on the subject, concur in opinion that its rangeof vision is circumscribed, and that it relies more on theear and the sense of smell than on its sight, which isliable to be obstructed by dense foliage ; besides which,
The wild elephant and the method of capturing and taming it in Ceylon . ess ascribable to the animals love of coolness andsolitude ; but it is not altogether unconnected with theposition of the eye, and the circumscribed use which itspecuhar mode of life permits it to make of the facultyof sicjht. 26 The Wild Elephant. All the elephant hunters and nati\-es witli whom I havespoken on the subject, concur in opinion that its rangeof vision is circumscribed, and that it relies more on theear and the sense of smell than on its sight, which isliable to be obstructed by dense foliage ; besides which,from the formation of its short neck, the elephant is in-capable of directing the range of the eye much above thelevel of the This small sphere of vision is sufficient to account forthe excessive caution of the elephant, its alami at unusual After writing the above, I was per-nWtted by the late Dr. Harrison, ofDublin, to see some accurate drawingsof the brain of an elephant, which hehad the opportunity of dissecting in1847 ; and on looking to that of the I have foimd a remarkable verificationof the information which I had pre-viously collected in Ceylon. The small figure A is the ganglion ofthe fifth nerve, showing the small motorand large sensitive portion. Olfactorj lobes—larpe. Optic 1 ?small. The olfactory lobes, from which theolfactory nerves proceed, are large,whilst the optic and muscular nerfcsof the orbit are singularly small for sovast an animal: and one is by the prodigious size of the 7-^^~-Th!r(! imir—:**-i^ iunh pair—small. two portions of fifth pair; scnsi-ve portionvery large, for *.ih pair—small,^venlh pair—portio dura, or motor,very large for proboscis. fifth nerve, which supplies the probosciswith its sensibility, as well asby the great size of the motor portionof the seventh, which supplies the sameorgan with its power of movement andaction. Smell. 2 7 noises, and the timidity and panic e
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, bookidwild, booksubjectelephants
