together--a murderous volley of
bullets and buckshot. Rearing upon his haunches with a sullen growl,
old bruin glared around a moment, then fell over backwards, and, with
a few dying kicks and groans, was dead. And this was the end of Bruin
and the maple-sugar party.

[Illustration: THE AFRICAN ELEPHANT.]

THE AFRICAN ELEPHANT.

There is not the least difficulty in distinguishing the Asiatic from
the African elephant. The ears of the former are comparatively small,
only reaching a little below the eyes, while the ears of the African
species are of enormous dimensions, actually crossing on the back of
the neck, drooping far below the chin, and extending beyond the
shoulder-blade. Generally, the ears are laid so flatly against the
neck, that they seem almost to form part of the skin of the head and
shoulders; but when the creature is suddenly roused, the ears are
thrown forward, and stand out so boldly, that they look more like
wings than ears. Towards the lower part the ears form themselves into
slight folds, which are not without some degree of elegance.

The end of the trunk also differs from that of the Asiatic species. In
that animal a kind of finger projects from the upper part of the
extremity; but in the African species the end of the trunk is split so
far, that the two lobes act as opposable fingers, and serve to grasp
any object which the animal desires to hold. This structure can easily
be seen by offering the animal a piece of biscuit. The forehead, too,
affords another means of distinction, being convex in the African, and
flat or slightly concave in the Asiatic.

Another very decided difference lies in the teeth. These enormous
engines of mastication are made up of a number of flat plates laid
side by side, and composed of enamel and bone. In the Asiatic species
these plates are nearly oval in form, and may be imitated by taking a
piece of cardboard, rolling it into a tube, and then pressing it until
it is nearly flat. But in the African species these plates are of a
diamond shape, and may be rudely imitated by taking the same
cardboard tube, and squeezing it nearly flat at each end, leaving the
centre to project. In consequence of these distinctions, several
systematic zooelogists have thought that the African elephant ought to
be placed in a separate genus, and have therefore called it _Loxodonta
Africana_, the former of these words signifying "oblique-toothed." I
think, however, that there a