12 AFRICAN ELEPHANT 



a purpose. I have, indeed, frequently seen acres of sandy ground dug 

 into holes by a herd of elephants in search of roots, but the digging 

 was not done with the tusks. On the contrary, the modus operandi 

 was as follows : — The position of a root underground having been 

 ascertained with the outstretched trunk by means of smell, the 

 elephant would dig down with its fore-foot, scraping out and throwing 

 backwards the sand, just as a dog does when trying to unearth a rat. 

 When the root — usually one growing horizontally — was laid bare, the 

 elephant would stoop down, and, getting its tusk underneath, prise it 

 up, break it in two, and pull the tapering end from the ground with its 

 trunk, when it would chew the piece for the sake of the sap and the 

 bark, and finally spit out the wood. On three occasions I have, 

 however, found a freshly broken piece of a tusk about a foot in length 

 jammed under a root, which it had not been strong enough to break. 

 Two of these broken tusks were those of cows, but one belonged to a 

 big bull, the fragment broken off weighing at least lo lb. When an 

 elephant has broken the end off one tusk, the rough edges of the 

 broken surface are soon worn away, when the owner is known as a 

 stump- tusked elephant. Old cow elephants often have both tusks 

 much worn, with their tips flattened at the sides, so as to form a 

 wedge-shaped point, and I at one time attributed this wearing away, not 

 so much to actual work in obtaining food, as to rubbing against trees. 



" Be the reason what it may, it is, however, noticeable that, while 

 elephants living in districts where the soil is soft and sandy usually 

 carry perfect tusks, those frequenting broken, hilly country, where the 

 soil is hard and stony, scarcely ever have both tusks perfect, whilst 

 both are frequently more or less broken. How the tusks become 

 broken I do not know, as I cannot recall much evidence of elephants 

 digging in hard ground. 



" Elephants in South Africa feed upon leaves, bark, roots, palm-nuts 

 and wild fruits of various kinds, rarely eating grass. In the Zambesi 

 district elephants are very fond of the bark of a tree known to the 

 Matabili as machabel. These trees often grow to a height of 30 or 

 40 feet, with stems over a foot in diameter. Using their tusks like 

 blunt chisels, elephants will cut through the bark at a height of 4 or 

 5 feet from the ground, and then, getting hold of a piece with their 

 trunks, will, by pulling, strip off a segment of the stem, right up to the 

 top of one of the highest branches ; the bark peeling off very easily and 

 not breaking while being ripped from the stem. I have often followed 

 a herd of elephants for miles through the machabel forests of northern 

 Mashonaland, without ever looking for their tracks on the ground, by 



