The menageries : quadrupeds, described and drawn from living subjects.

Date:
1831
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The menageries : quadrupeds, described and drawn from living subjects. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    112/412 (page 102)
    remarkably large and strong, and the other compa- ratively small and weak, were at the well together; the small elephant had been provided by his master with a bucket for the occasion, which he carried at the end of his proboscis ; but the larger animal being destitute of this necessary vessel, either spontane- ously or by desire of his keeper, seized the bucket, and easily wrested it away from his less powerful fellow-servant: the latter was too sensible of his in- feriority, openly to resent the insult, though it is ob- vious that he felt it; but great squabbling and abuse ensued between the keepers. At length, the weaker animal, watching the opportunity when the other was standing with his side to the well, retired backwards a few paces in a very quiet, unsuspicious manner, and then rushing forward with all his might, drove his head against the side of the other, and fairly pushed him into the well. “It may easily be imagined that great inconveni- ence was immediately experienced, and serious appre- hensions quickly followed, that the water in the well, on which the existence of so many seemed in a great measure to depend, would be spoiled, or at least in- jured by the unwieldy brute which was precipitated into it; and as the surface of the water was nearly twenty feet below the common level, there did not appear to be any means that could be adopted to get the animal out by main force, at least without injur- ing him: there were many feet of water below the elephant, who floated with ease on its surface, and experiencing considerable pleasure from his cool re- treat, evinced but little inclination even to exert what means he might possess in himself of escape. “ A vast number of fascines had been employed by the army in conducting the siege, and at length it occurred to the elephant keeper, that a sufficient number of these (which may be compared to bundles