4                  A TREATISE ON ELEPHANTS.

diminished. The skin around the nails presents a broken and warty
appearance. The tail is cakey, hard and the extremity often devoid
of hair. Sanderson notes on the peculiar action of aged animals :
" Instead of walking firmly, and planting the feet flat, they bring
the feet to the ground somewhat in the manner of a plantigrade
animal, touching with the heels first." This peculiarity may some-
times be observed in animals of middle age suffering from debility.

The most ready way of forming an approximate idea of the age
is by the amount of turn-over of the upper edge of the ear. In
young animals, sometimes up to the age of eight or nine years, the
edge is quite straight; it, however, then begins to turn over, and by
the time an animal is thirty, the edges curl over to the extent of an
inch, and between this age and sixty, this increases to two inches
or slightly more. The teeth afford some evidence as to age, but
this is of little practical value (see Appendix C).

What in Burma is considered a sure sign of middle age is the
condition known as kadoung-kyeik, that is, the animal presents
somewhat the appearance of a Burman with his waist-cloth
(loongyi) tucked up. This appearance has to be seen to be under-
stood. The Burman belief is that once this condition appears the
animal is annually liable to become musth.

                                 HEIGHT.

Extravagant estimates of the height of elephants have from time
to time been recorded ; their great bulk so far exceeds that of the
ordinary animals we are accustomed to see that the tendency is to
overestimate their size. The old method of measuring was also
most misleading : a rope was simply thrown over the back, the ends
brought to the ground on each side, and half the length taken as
the height. Much amusing information on this subject is contained
in Sanderson's excellent work. Madras elephants, he tells us, were
at one time said to be from 17 to 20 ft. high, and an animal at
Dacca was said to be 14 ft. Mr. Corse, a gentleman thoroughly
conversant with elephants, determined if possible to see one of
these enormous creatures. He accordingly took the trouble to go
to Dacca, and was rather surprised to find that according to his
measurement the animal said to measure 14 ft. did not exceed
10 ft. in height (a very good height). We may take it on the
authority of Sanderson, a most careful observer, who had unrivalled
opportunities of investigating such matters, that such a thing as an
elephant measuring 10 ft. at the shoulder does not exist in India,
nor, may I add, in Burma. The largest male he ever met with
measured 9 ft. 10 ins. and the tallest female 8 ft. 5 ins. Cingalese