CHAPTER IV 



THE ELEPHANT, THE GIANT OF THE FOREST 



There are two different species of elephants — the 

 African ; and the Asiatic, or, as he is more generally called, 

 the Indian. This latter species appears to be more closely 

 related to the mammoth of past ages than the African ele- 

 phant, particularly in regard to the shape of the head and 

 the structure of the molar teeth. These are in the Asiatic, 

 or Indian, elephant of much finer construction than the 

 coarse molar teeth of his African cousins, with their 

 larger plates and thicker enamel, proving that the African 

 elephant is accustomed to live upon harder and more " sub- 

 stantial " food than the Indian, a fact that is borne out by 

 all careful observers. 



The heads of the two species differ so much that any- 

 one who knows their characteristics at once distinguishes 

 the one from the other. In the African species the fore- 

 head is much more convex, the base of the trunk wider, 

 and the ears more than twice as large as those of the 

 Indian elephant. The same is the case with the tusks, 

 being in the latter much smaller in bulls, and practically 

 nonexisting in females, while the African elephant of both 

 sexes carries splendid tusks, weighing in the males some- 

 times two hundred pounds apiece, and more. The females 

 have much thinner tusks, which, although of considerable 



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