Memoir upon living and fossil Elephmits. 249 



$'ioii, has larger tosks ihan any male or female Indian ek- 

 phanl of the same size, thai we are acquainted with. 



It is from Africa we receive the most ivory, and the 

 greatest number of tusks, and they are also harder and 

 whiter than any others. 



But our limited knowledge is confined to the elephants of 

 the Western coasts, and to those of the South of Africa : 

 we are ignorant if those of the Eastern shores resemhle 

 them in every thing, and if there be any Vc^rieUcs in the in- 

 terior. 



We know from Pennant, however, that the coast of Mo- 

 zambique furnishes tusks ten feet long, being the largest 

 pvcr known. 



In the Indian species there are more varieties, which Mr. 

 Corse develops with more care than any other writer*. 



In the first place, no female of this specie^ has long tusks : 

 they have them small, and directed in a straight line 

 downwards, (this vi'as very properly mentioned by Aristotlef 

 in a passage since improper! v contradicted,) and some of 

 them are so short that they cannot be seen until the lips are 

 lifted up. 



Further, there are several males which have not large tusks. 

 Tavernier says, that in the island of Ceylon it is only the 

 first born of each female which has tusksj. On the con- 

 tinent of India they distinguish the damitelah, or elephants 

 with long tu.-ks ; the mookna, which have very short ones. 

 The latter have them always straight. Wolfs, who travelled 

 much in Ceylon, says, also, that there are several males in 

 that island without fuskn, and that they arenan)ed majanis^. 

 Among the daantelah they agiin distinguish, according 

 to Corse, the pnUung dawitelah, the tusks of which are di- 

 rected almost horizontally ; and the p7ittel dai/ntelak, in 

 which they are directed straight downwards. Between these 

 two extremes there are several intermediate, and they have 

 also given names to individuals in which one tu^k differs 

 from the other, or which have only one. But all these va- 



* Phil. Trans. 17?9, p. 205 & serj. f Hist. Anini. lib. ii. c. 5. 



t T.;vernier, totnc ii. p. 175. 



§ Voyage a Ccylaii, en Allem. p. lOC, citi! par Camper, An.it. d'lin Klejili. 

 p. 17. 



tieiicj! 



