An
elephant has been known to drink right off fourteen Macedonian
metretae of water, and another metretae later in the day.
Camels live for about thirty years; in some exceptional cases
they live much longer, and instances have been known of their living
to the age of a hundred. The elephant is said by some to live for
about two hundred years; by others, for three hundred.
10
Sheep and goats are graminivorous, but sheep browse assiduously
and steadily, whereas goats shift their ground rapidly, and browse
only on the tips of the herbage. Sheep are much improved in
condition by drinking, and accordingly they give the flocks salt every
five days in summer, to the extent of one medimnus to the hundred
sheep, and this is found to render a flock healthier and fatter. In
fact they mix salt with the greater part of their food; a large amount
of salt is mixed into their bran (for the reason that they drink
more when thirsty), and in autumn they get cucumbers with a sprinkling
of salt on them; this admixture of salt in their food tends also to
increase the quantity of milk in the ewes. If sheep be kept on the
move at midday they will drink more copiously towards evening; and
if the ewes be fed with salted food as the lambing season draws near
they will get larger udders.
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