June s, 1884.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



877 



vi'ars afterwards, when he returned to India, he happened 

 "to go up into Dude, and in raalring a journey, part of it 

 h^'d to be accomplished on elephants. "When he got out 

 of his carriage to mount the elephant she recognised him 

 immediately, before ho recognised her, and he thought that 

 certainly showed a greater amount of intelligence than could 

 be expected from a stupid animal. Another important 

 ([uestion was. liow to tell the age of an elephant. By looking 

 in his mouth you could tell approximately, but probably 

 not within three or four years. Mr. Sanderson had men- 

 tioned an important fact, which was not yet generally 

 acknowledged, that the tr-sks of an elephant, which did 

 not represent canine teeth, but incisors, were not deciduous, 

 biitcame once for all, and remained. Comparative anatomists 

 snid that these teeth had a deciduous from at first, that 

 tliey grew for a year or a year and a-half, and were then 

 slied and replaced by the permanent tusks. Mr. Sanderson 

 Kaid this was not so, and though this had yet to be verified, 

 ho (the (Aairman i thought he might be right. That there 

 was a deciduous tooth which was followed by the permanent 

 one he had no doubt, but apparently it was not shed, but 

 absorbed, which would explain the matter. If they looked 

 into a large elephant's mouth they would see two enormous 

 teeth, double teeth, but not generally more than two, and 

 if they looked into the mouth of one of the elephants in 

 the Gardens now, they would probably see in front of one 

 the fragments of another double tooth. Tlie fact was that 

 the elcphaht had six molar teeth on each side in the lower 

 jaw, three of which represented the deciduous, and three 

 the permanent teeth; one grew behuid the other, and pushed 

 it forward. The first three were lost in the first nine years. 

 At about the 20th to 25th year the fourth tooth was lost, 

 and for the rest of its life the animal depended on the 

 two last. Knowing this, you might, up to a certain period, 

 estimate approximately the age. Again the mahouts said 

 they could tell the age of an elephant partly l)y the general 

 appearance, i>ut what they depended most upon was a fold 

 in the upper part of the ear; however he doubteil if they 

 were not frequently out some years. Then there were 

 questions as to the kind and amount of fool the animal 

 required, and the best means of keeping it in health. It 

 was laid down in the commissariat of India that, for an 

 elephant at sea, there was required daily 150 lb. of hay, 

 20 lb. to 30 ib. of flour, a certain amount of nee, 4 oz. to 

 6 oz. of salt, and 30 or 40 pails of water. The amount 

 consumed by Jumbo was a truss and a-ha!f of hay, two of 

 straw, 2 lb. of rice, 1 bushel of bran, 1 peck of oats, 7 lb. 

 of biscuit, grass or green food as much as he could get, 

 and 10 pails of water, so that an elephant was a costly anima! 

 to keep. Yet he remembered the time when you could 

 keep one in India, including the mahout and grass cutter, 

 for thirty or forty rupees a month. It would coat more 

 than twice as much now. As to the value of elephants, 

 their price was perfectly arbitrary and conventional. You 

 might pay almost any sum for a good tusker or even a good 

 inukhiui^ which was a male with very small tu.sks like those 

 of a female. If they wanted to see fine specimens of well 

 formed elephants, they could not do better than examine 

 those in the Zoological Gardens, both of which had been 

 carefully selected by men of extremely good judgment and 

 knowledge of the animal. The larger, though the younger 

 one, was a perfectly beautiful elephant, and was selected 

 especially by the late Jung Bahadoor, who was a great 

 lover of elephants; on the table was a picture of a very 

 fine tusker which belonged to him, and was considered the 

 finest in India. With regard to ivory and the size of tusks, 

 he had copied some figures on the subject, stating that some 

 African tusks weighed 100 lb. each, and one pair weighed 

 325 lb. It was also stated that the best ivory came from 

 Siam, though why that should be better than the Indian 

 he did not know, as it was the same species. The ivory 

 of the mammoth was even yet exported in tons from Siberia, 

 but whiithcr after being exposed for so many centuries to the 

 weather and water it was of as good quahty as the modern 

 ivory, he could not say. lie concluded by proposing a vote 

 of thanks to Mr. Sanderson, which was carried unanimously. 

 Mr, Sanderson, in reply, said he could not give any inform- 

 ation about the alleged elephant worship in Siam, fop he 

 knew nothing about it. As to the use of pitfalls, he had 

 intended to make it clear that the Government had pro- 

 hibited them all over India, and though they were still 

 in use in some of the native territories, yet even from 

 those thoy had bad iuquiriea bb to the more aJvautageouB 



method of catching elephants, and some of these native 

 States had expressed their desire to .abolish this barbarou 

 system. "With regard to the length of tusks, he had himself 

 seen a pair from the Garrow hills, in Assam, obtained in 

 1S79, which measured 8ft. 9 in. in length, anil ho had no 

 doubt they were still in the possession of Lord Lytton, who 

 was then Governor-General. They weighed 1681b. Sir Victor 

 Brooke, in the IMysore, shot an elephant, one of whose tusks 

 was eight feet in length, and weighed 90 lb. As to dis- 

 couraging the .slaughter of African elephants, he feared that 

 nothing short of giviug up the use of ivory would bring it 

 about; for as long as the native traders could sell the ivory 

 they would destroy the elephants. TVith regard to the 

 sacrifice of human life in elephant hunting, everything was 

 done to prevent it; but it must be remembered that risk 

 of life was unavoidable ii fi'^hing, and indeed in almost all 

 industrial pursuits. Unless the elephant was left alone 

 altogether, there must be some danger, but every possible 

 precaution was taken to prevent loss of life. With regard 

 to elephant catching in Africa, Sir, Joseph Fayrer com- 

 municated with him on the subject some four or five years 

 ago, and submitted a plan to him. He then suggested 

 that it would be well to send a few Indian elephants over 

 first, to see if they would stand the tsetze fly, because 

 some Indian buffaloes which Dr. Livingstone took there were 

 killed within about ton days' march from the coast. Subse- 

 quently four elephants were shipped from Bomb.ay, and 

 landed at Zanzibar ; they were mider the care of Mr. Carter 

 and another gentlemen ; but unfortunately, after a few days, 

 they quarrelled with the Indian attendants, who left, and 

 he did not know how they got on. There were accounts 

 sent that they were not at all affected by the fly, and did 

 very well for some weeks or months; then one or two of 

 them died, and subsequently the expedition was cut up. 

 Jlr. Garter and the other gentlemanjwere killed, and what 

 became of the elephants he did not know. As regards 

 riding African elephants, he had three about 7 ft. high in 

 the Dacca establishment for two years, with the object of 

 testing them by the sido of the Indian elephants, and they 

 were found to be docile, but more stuljborn. Jle had hearil 

 the same character of them from tlu- keepers of menageries 

 in England. The men set upon their shoulders, and i)ut 

 their feet behind the ears; if necessary, a pad could be 

 arranged to be kept behind the elephant's ears, to take off 

 the pressiure on the rider's legs. It would be a very good 

 thing if the African elephant could be subjugated, because 

 one would carry as much load as thirty or forty porters, 

 and half the difficulty of African exploration arose from 

 having to take so many, tho greater part of whom were 

 carrying goods to be given to themselves and their fellows 

 as wages. Three elephants would be suflScient for any expe- 

 dition, and this would, no doubt, be the best means of 

 opening up Central Africa. Unless, however, it was decided 

 to settle in the country for some years, he did not see how 

 elephant catching was to be estabhshed; the negroes were 

 perfect savages, who regarded an elephant simply as so 

 much meat; and so long as the African slave hunters had 

 more profitable emplojanent in tlieir own line, they would 

 not take to elephant catching. It would, therefore, require 

 a permanent estabUshment. Ho had made many e.xperi- 

 ments on the quantity of food an elephant would consume, 

 having kept as many as ten for a month on a stone platform, 

 where everything tliey had was carefully weighed. They 

 would eat from 650 to 800 lb. of green fodder in eighteen 

 hours, and the rest of the time they had been out in the 

 jungle getting it. during which time they got a pickiug 

 also. With regard to their age, the sin of tho ear was much 

 relied on by the natives, but it was not always satisfactory, 

 and I'cquirod to be taken in conjunction with other things. 

 As to tho deciduous teeth, no doubt Sir Joseph Fayrer 

 was perfectly accurate, and he was satisfied that they did 

 not shed their tusks. He believed Mr. Corse originatctl 

 the idea; whether any elephant ever did so he was not 

 prepared to say, but to test the fact, he had, in a large 

 number of instances, had a file mark put upon the tusk 

 the moment it came through, but although he watched 

 them carefully, and had never known a tusk drop, nor was 

 the idea entertained by anyone in India who was connected 

 with elephants. Mr. Tegotmeier. however, and other 

 naturalists, judging from the skull, asserteil that he was 

 wi-ong, and that elephants had milk teeth. This was no 

 doubt correct, but they were absorbed in the gum, — Journal 

 of the Society of Arts. 



