146 THE REASON WHY : 



" With turcoises divinely bine, 



(Though doubts arise -where first they grew. 



Whether chaste elephantine bone 



By min'rals tinged, or native stone.)" Joints. 



437. It is remarkable that -while a great number of -writers have fully dfecuswi 

 fiie uses and curious anatomy of the elephant's trunk, they have been almost siient 

 as to the use* of the tasks. It is obvious, however, that these prominent and 

 ponderous weapons seatst be of material consequence in the economy of the animal's 

 existence. In Partington's " Cyclopaedia " we find the following speculations tip IB 

 the subject: 



In the Bving elephants of both varieties the tusks are either nearly straigat 

 9t curved upwards ; or if their direction be nearly thart of the line of tbe face they 

 are inclined forward at the points. In the fossil elephant, on the other hand, (at 

 least in all the specimens which have been found,) the curvature of the tusks is the 

 'the other way, or downwards. What may be the use of this difference of structure 

 it is not easy to say, because we know nothing of the habits of the extinct elephant, 

 and very little of what the state of the coou-try may have been when it was alive ; 

 but as the tusks in it are so constructed as that they might act as hooks In pulling 

 down substances higher than itself, and as it is probable that the northern marshes 

 were at that time covered 1 with tree ferns, and those other palm-like plants, of 

 which the remains are abundant in the fossil staste, though not a vestige of those 

 plants now appears on the surface of the same regions, we may perhaps venture to 

 conclude that such tusks had been employed in pulling* clown the fronds of tbe 

 plants in onler that the animal might feed upon them.* 



The elephant rarely uses his trunk as a weapon, but his tusk* enable him not 

 enly to ckar his way through the thick forests in which he lives, by rooting up 

 small trees and tearing down cross branches, in doing which service they effectually 

 protect his face and proboscis from injury ; but they qualify him for warding ofl 

 the attacks of the wily tiger and the furious rhinoceros, often securing him the 

 victory by one bkxw, which transfixes the assailant to the earth. 



438. Why are the eyes of the elephant remarkably ymaU? 



By their smallness they are more easily protected froir. >njury 

 while the animal is engaged in breaking down branches >f trees. 

 And they are also rendered more secure from the attacks of 

 insects which, in the geographical range of the elephant, are 

 exceedingly troublesome. 



The eye is uot only protected by the comparative smallnesa 

 of its size, but it is provided with a nictating membrane, by 

 which the elephant is enabled to free it from all accidental 

 fragments that may fall upon it. This membrane, which i 

 Bmilar to that possessed by birds, is not the ordinary 



Partington's "Cyclopaedia." 



