temperatures in which they are placed, we cannot feel surprised, that, in some instances, elephants, with hair, should be found to exist. For the common Asiatic elephant cannot be regarded with any attention, without our perceiving, that, on almost every part of his bare hide, there is an indication of hair, such as we see on some species of the dog from Turkey, or of the hog from China;* and we may, therefore, safely conclude, that, as in both these familiar instances, the clothing, natural to most other animals, is only wanting in the case of the elephant, from the warmth of the climates, to which he is, for the most part, confined. This natural clothing, however, which circumstances alone have, in general, caused him to lay aside, is immediately called into action, when a cooler temperature requires its presence. An elephant does not continue long in our temperate climates without this provision being more or less developed; and we have, at this moment, in London, most decided

* It is well known, that many of the hog tribe, especially those from China, have little or no hair, when first brought into our climates. The laws of nature soon, however, take effect; and they not only, in the end, become covered with hair, but they also acquire a complete under-covering of wool, as is well known to all fly-fishers.

instances of this incipient roughness, in the two elephants belonging to the Zoological Society in the Regent's Park.

The recent discovery of this Zoological fact, in a country which has so long been occupied by numbers of our countrymen, may, perhaps, be looked upon as one of the most remarkable parts of it; and though the work, I am about to quote, has now been for several years before the public, I do not, any where, find that this new and interesting variety of the elephant has met with that attention to which it may certainly lay claim. That it bears, in a most remarkable manner, on the great questions in Geology, must be apparent to all who have attended to the line of reasoning so recently explained. For it must be evident, that if the common elephants, of the hottest climates, without hair, were floated, by the currents, from a tropical to a frozen region, and were there stranded, and sealed up, on the subsiding of the waters; all such as inhabited a cooler climate, even within the tropics, must also have been subjected to a similar mechanical power. But we are not to suppose, because a few fossil specimens may have been found with hair, that all the elephants, whose remains are embedded in the northern or temperate climates of the earth, were of this.

rough species. On the contrary, it may safely be looked upon as certain, that the number of bodies with hair, bore no greater proportion to those without, than we now find to exist in the living species. We have every reason to conclude, that the elephant is a native only of such climates, as furnish, in luxuriance, the vegetable productions on which he feeds. They are no where found, in a natural state, in temperate latitudes; but only in those countries where the herbage may be termed gigantic, and where the jungles are so thick, that the animals may not only be completely concealed from their enemies, but may also find an easy and abundant subsistence. Such is the case, not only in the low and swampy plains of Hindostan, but, also, in the districts of India, bordering on the mountains, where a higher elevation in the atmosphere counteracts, in some degree, the powerful effects of the sun, and occasions a temperature, which, in India, is termed cold, though the thermometer may rarely indicate the freezing point.

The first, and, as yet, only notice we have of this shaggy variety of the elephant, is to be found in the interesting Journal of Bishop Heber. It was in the course of that long tour round the district over which his spiritual government extended, that the Bishop arrived in the Resi

dency of Barielly, a city situated in the plain, in the 28th degree of N. latitude, and about 50 miles from the lower range of the Hymalaya. It was at only one day's journey from Barielly, on his way to the mountains, and while passing through the unwholesome forests and jungles of the plain, that he was visited by a native border Prince of that district, who invited him to join in the hunting of a tiger, which had lately been seen in that neighbourhood. It is in the short and animated description of this hunt, that the Bishop makes use of the following terms;" The Rajah was mounted on a "little female elephant, hardly bigger than the "Durham ox, and ALMOST AS SHAGGY AS A 66 POODLE. She was a native of the neighbouring woods, where they are generally, though "not always, of a smaller size than those of Bengal, and Chittagong."

Heber again mentions having met the same Rajah, a few days afterwards, "on his little elephant;" and we cannot peruse this concise, yet particular description of so casual a circumstance, without perceiving, that, though he does not enter into details upon the subject of this rough coated elephant, yet his attention was, on both these occasions, particularly attracted to so uncommon an animal. I am the more desirous of drawing the attention to the artless

and familiar description contained in the above passage, from having found, on enquiry from many who have spent a great part of their lives in the East, that this variety of the elephant is so little known, that much doubt is entertained, by some, as to the correctness of the account of it.

Setting aside, however, for a moment, the character of the individual from whom alone we have, as yet, derived our information of this new living variety, let us consider the collateral circumstances of the case; and we shall find, that this generally, though not invariably small race of elephants, are said to be the natural and wild inhabitants of an extensive range of jungle, where, though ice is rarely seen, yet hoar frost is quite a common occurrence; and where, consequently, the clothing of the native animals might be expected to be warmer than in the burning plains, at a greater distance from the highest mountains on the globe.

We find, that this very animal on which the Rajah was mounted, accompanied the Bishop to the town, or village, where he was to leave his elephants for a time, and to continue his journey on "little white shaggy ponies," in every respect similar to those of Wales, or of Scotland, to which Heber likens them; and in