Their immense weight acting on their broad feet, bordered by
sharp horny toes, cuts away the side of the hill at every stride
and forms a level step; thus they are enabled to skirt the sides
of precipitous hills and banks with comparative case. The trunk
is the wonderful monitor of all danger to an elephant, from
whatever cause it may proceed. This may arise from the approach
of man or from the character of the country; in either case the
trunk exerts its power; in one by the acute sense of smell, in
the other by the combination of the sense of scent and touch. In
dense jungles, where the elephant cannot see a yard before him,
the sensitive trunk feels the hidden way, and when the roaring of
waterfalls admonishes him of the presence of ravines and
precipices, the never-failing trunk lowered upon the around keeps
him advised of every inch of his path.
Nothing is more difficult than to induce a tame elephant to cross
a bridge which his sagacity assures him is insecure; he will
sound it with his trunk and press upon it with one foot, but he
will not trust his weight if he can perceive the slightest
vibration.
Their power of determining whether bogs or the mud at the bottom
of tanks are deep or shallow is beyond my comprehension.
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