130 THE ELEPHANT 



To supply the demand of the world for ivory (eight 

 hundred tons per annum), over seventy-five thousand ele- 

 phants are killed, which means the extinction of the 

 animal in the near future. So rapidly has the African 

 elephant been killed, that the various powers have agreed 

 to protect it, and sportsmen now pay a heavy fee, or fine, 

 for killing one of these animals. 



Every tusk brought out of Africa is at the expense of one 

 or more human lives. Fifty-one thousand elephants are 

 annually killed on the west coast of Africa, and twenty- 

 five thousand in other parts. Tusks range in weight up 

 to one hundred and fifty pounds each. The ivory cross 

 of the high- altar at the cathedral at Goa weighs one hun- 

 dred and eighty pounds and is straight. A native king in 

 Africa had a pair of tusks which were eight feet long 

 and measured two and a half feet at the base. They 

 weighed two hundred pounds each. In Amsterdam a 

 tusk was sold some years ago which weighed three hun- 

 dred and fifty pounds. The tusks often take strange 

 shapes. An elephant was killed in 1856 and seen by 

 Thomas Barnes, F.R.S., which had nine tusks; five on 

 the right side, and four on the left. The tusks in the 

 African elephant are much the largest, and they occur in 

 both sexes, while in the Asiatic form the male alone pos- 

 sesses them. The African elephant is at least a foot taller 

 than the other, being about eleven feet high. Its ears 

 are enormous and distinguish it at once, covering the 

 shoulders and measuring three and one half feet in width. 



In Africa the elephant is found in the warm regions, 

 feeding on herbage of its choice. A single young is born 

 at a birth, weighing about one hundred and seventy-five 



