Those Other Animals

f Wit ^ Humour. Ex tibris C. K. OGDEN THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES SECOND SERIES. THE WHITEFRIARS LIBRARY OF WIT AND HUMOUR, EDITED BY W. H. DAVENPORT ADAMS. " Quid veritm atque decens euro et rogo, et omnis in hoc sum." HORACE. " We shall spare no pains to make instruction agreeable to our readers and their diversion useful. For which reasons we shall endeavour to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality, that our readers both their account in the way, ifpossiblet ways find speculation of the day" ADDISON (adapted). THOSE OTHER ANIMALS, G. A. HENTY. WITH PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR AND TWENTY-TWO ILLUSTRATIONS BY HARRISON WEIR. LONDON : HENRY AND CO., BOUVER1E STREET, PIC. Ihe EBhitrfriara ptaars of Sit anb Rumour. FIRST SERIES. The following Vols. are now ready, 2s. 6d. each. SSA YS IN LITTLE. By ANDREW LANG. SAWN OFF: A Tale of a Family Tree. By G. MANVILLE FENN. A LITTLE IRISH GIRL. By the Author " of Molly Bawn." THREE WEEKS AT MOPETOWN. By PERCY FITZGERALD. A BOOK OF BURLESQUE. By WILLIAM DAVENPORT ADAMS. IN A CANADIAN CANOE. By BARRY I'AIN, B.A. SECOND SERIES. Price 3s. 6d. each. THOSE OTHER ANIMALS. By G. A. HKNTV. With Illustrations by HARRISON WKIK. \Kea<iy. IN CAMBRIDGE COUR TS. By Rruou-H C. I.KHMANN. I I'M Illustrations by A. C. I'AYNH. {October. QL 791 TO THE READER. TV /T AN, being essentially a creature of habit, has come *** to look upon what he is pleased to consider as the inferior creation from one point of view only, and that in most cases the narrow and selfish one of his own interests ; thus his views are frequently lamentably prejudiced and erroneous. The natural result has been that, while we condone the failings of those creatures we make useful to us, we ignore the virtues of other and much more estimable ones. Thus, we admire the Bee because we benefit by his labours, while we have not a good word to for say the Wasp, who is, in point alike of industry and intelligence, the Bee's superior. An attempt has been here made to view some of the animal creation from a broader point of view, and to endeavour to do justice to those whose good points have been hitherto persistently ignored, and to take down others from the pedestal upon which they have been placed, as it would seem, unfairly and unreasonably. If some of the 10318 vi TO THE READER. conclusions at which we have arrived are not in accordance with those propounded by men of science, we can only say that we are sorry for the men of science. It has only to be added that some of these essays were first presented to the world in the columns of the Evening Standard, G. A. H. CONTENTS, viii CONTENTS. THOSE OTHER ANIMALS. THE ELEPHANT. must be admitted that it is hard upon the citizens of IT the United States that the elephant is not found in the Western Continent. The Americans have an especial fondness for big things. They are proud that they possess the biggest Continent, the largest rivers, the longest railways, the loftiest trees, the most monster hotels, and the tallest stories of any people in the world. It is, then, extremely hard upon them that they have not also the biggest quadrupeds. Two good-sized quadrupeds, indeed, they had the bison and the moose but they are fast disappearing. As they were not the very biggest, the citizens of the States had no interest in preserving them. Had the elephant been there, he would, doubtless, have been religiously protected as a subject of national glorification. The elephant is not thought so much of in the countries where he resides. In India he has been utilised, but in Africa is prized only for his flesh and his tusks. He is considered to be a highly intelligent animal, and in books for children is generally 2 THOSE OTHER ANIMALS. but in to spoken of as the sagacious elephant ; proportion of his size he is rather a poor creature in the way intelligence, real and the brain of the ant, tiny as it is, contains more the skull of the thinking power than elephant. It can hardly be doubted that he owes much of the respect in which he is held by man to the peculiar formation of his is considered as a of proboscis. A large nose generally sign nose since the ability in man, but even the largest human is, change of fashion abolished its usefulness as a snuff-box, incapable of any other function than that of an organ of smell, and as a convenient support for a pair of spectacles. It is practically fixed and immovable, at least for all purposes save that of expressing the emotions of scorn and disdain. Man has, then, never recovered from the astonishment and admiration experienced by the first dis- coverer of the elephant at finding a beast capable of using his nose as a hand of conveying his food to his mouth with it, and of utilising it in all the various work of life. This peculiarity has been more than sufficient to counter- balance the many obvious defects in the appearance of the elephant his little pig-like eyes, his great flat ears, his short and stumpy tail, and the general hairless condition of his leathern skin. Then, too, mankind, even in the present day of advanced education, are worshippers of brute strength, as is evidenced by the attraction of the feats men performed by strong ; and the elephant possesses enormous strength. This, however, is positive rather than relative, for he is a poor creature indeed in comparison with the or flea, even with the beetle, both of which can move weights enormously exceeding their own. Even the bulk for donkey could, bulk, give the elephant points. THE ELEPHANT. 3 The elephant is but a chicken-hearted beast. In spite of his size and strength he is easily scared, and a hare starting up at his feet has been frequently known to have excited in him an uncontrollable panic. Now and then one can be trained to await the of an quietly charge angry tiger ; but this is rather because of the confidence that the animal feels in the shooting of the men he carries than in his own powers, and after having been once mauled he can seldom be induced to repeat the experiment. Naturally, the elephant is timid in the extreme; the slightest noise startles him, and, except in the case of a solitary bull rendered morose by being driven from the herd by younger rivals, he will seldom unless wounded face man. He is, like most of but it is animals, capable being taught something ; when considered that he lives a hundred years, while the dog lives but ten or twelve, he would be stupid indeed if he did not in all that time come to some understanding as to what was of at his required him ; but even best, a well-trained dog is a vastly more intelligent animal. This, indeed, might only be expected, for the elephant's brain is smaller in proportion to its bulk than is that of almost other little than that of any creature, being larger man ; and while the brain in man is of about one-twenty-fifth of the size of the body, that of the elephant is but one-five-hundredth part. We should, therefore, pity rather than blame the creature for the smallness of his capacity. It may be said that Baron Cuvier, who made the habits of the elephant a subject of attentive study, came to the conclusion that at the best he was no more intelligent than a dog. The elephant should have been admired by Dr. Johnson on the ground that he is a goodthater. Although his brain 4 THOSE OTHER ANIMALS. his of an is not capable of holding many ideas, memory and if he has to wait for injury is particularly retentive, at last with one who has years, he will get even any played him a trick. In old times the elephant was trained to war. Gunpowder had not been in- vented, and the elephant .was there- -fore prac- t i c a 1 1 y invulner- able ; but even then his utility was problematical, and if pricked by an arrow or javelin, he was as likely as not to turn tail, and to spread confusion and death in the ranks of the troops that marched behind him. His courage, in fact, is beyond THE ELEPHANT. 5 all comparison less than that of the horse, who seems to enjoy the clamour of battle, and will carry his rider un- flinchingly through the heaviest fire. As a beast of burden the elephant has his uses, and in countries impassable to wheeled vehicles he is very valuable, especially in the carriage of pieces of artillery that could not be transported by any other available means. Upon a level road, however, he possesses no advantage whatever over smaller animals, which will not only drag larger weights in proportion to the food they consume, but will do so at much greater speed. The elephant, in fact, appears to have been built up with a single eye to his own advantages, and altogether without reference to the use he might be to man. He is admirably fitted for sustaining the struggle for existence. The mechan- ism of his feet is such as to sustain to a nicety his enormous weight.

Load more