HEIGHT.                                          5

elephants are said to seldom exceed 9 ft.,* and the ordinary herd
elephants do not average more than 8 ft.

Of 300 males measured in this Province, the average height was
7 ft. 10½ ins., girth 11 ft. 10 ins. ; and of 100 females, the average
height was found to be 7 ft. 5¾ ins., girth 10 ft. 11 ins. All these
animals were measured at the shoulder as is done with horses. An
elephant dealer, through whose hands some two thousand elephants
had passed, stated that he had only met with one animal measuring
9 ft. 4 ins. at the shoulder. Mr. C. B. Lacey informs me that in
Siam the tallest animal owned by the Bombay Burma Trading Cor-
poration measures 9 ft. 6 ins. at the shoulder. This fact shows how
rare it is to come across an animal 9½ ft. and over, for the Bombay
Burma Trading Corporation have records of a thousand and more
animals, yet this is the only one they possess measuring 9 ft.
6 ins. ; and at the present time they have some 2,000 or 3,000
elephants in their employ.

Details of measurements of 300 male elephants—

Of the above number, there were only two  animals 9 ft. and
over, namely, one exactly 9 ft. in height with  a girth of 14 ft.
9 ins., the other 9 ft. 1 in. with a girth of 1 3 ft.  9 ins.

Details of measurements of 100 females—

The above measurements were taken haphazard from the
recorded measurements of considerably over 800 animals. The
males from 7 ft. and under 7 ft. 6 ins. were probably not fully
grown, yet were sufficiently so to be working, and in all probability
unlikely to grow- much more (see Appendix D).

Burmans give the height of elephants in cubits, the " cubit "
employed by them being the ordinary cubit plus a hand's breadth
or roughly 21 ins.

                      * Emerson Tennent—" Ceylon," 1859.