Chap. I.] 



STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONS. 



275 



But it is manifestly inconsistent with tlie idea that 

 tusks were given to the elephant to assist him in digging 

 for his food, to find that the females are less bountiiiiUy 

 supplied with them than the males, wliilst the necessity 

 for their use extends equally to both sexes. The same 

 argument would serve to demonstrate the fallacy of the 

 coiijecture, that the tusks of the elephant were given to 

 him as weapons of offence, for if such were the case the 

 vast majority in Ceylon, males as well as females, woidd 

 be left helpless in presence of an assailant. But although 

 in their conflicts with one another, those which are pro- 

 vided with tusks may occasionally push with them clumsily 

 at their opponents ; it is a misapprehension to imagine 

 that tusks are designed specially to serve " in warding off 

 th.e attacks of the wily tiger and the furious rhinoceros, 

 often securing the victory by one blow which transfixes 

 the assailant to the earth." ^ 



So harmless and peaceftd is the hfe of the elephant, that 



tate to draw the infereuce tliat the 

 size of the former was imifonuly aud 

 naturally less than that of the latter. 

 The truth, I believe to be, that if 

 permitted to grow to maturity, the 

 tusks of the one woidd, in all proba- 

 bility, equal those of the other ; but, 

 so eager is the search for ivoiy in 

 Ceylon, that a tusker, when once 

 obsei"^'ed in a herd, is followed up 

 with such perseveiing impatience, that 

 he is almost invariably shot before 

 attaining his fidl gTowth. General 

 3)i Lima, when returning from the 

 governorship of the Portuguese set- 

 tlements at Mozambique, told me, 

 in 1848, that he had beeu requested 

 to procure two tusks of the largest 

 size and straightest possible shape, 

 which were to be formed into a cross 

 to surmoimt the high altar of the ca- 

 theelral at Goa : he succeeded in his 

 commission, and sent two, one of 

 which was 180 pounds, and the other 

 170 pounds' weight, with the slightest 

 possible curve. In a periodiciil, en- 

 titled 77ie Ffii'nd, published in Cey- 

 lon, it is stated in the vohune for 1837 

 that the officers belonging to the ships 



Q.uoiTah and Alburhak, engaged in 

 the Niger Expedition, were shown 

 by a native king two tusks, each two 

 feet and a half in circmnferonce at 

 the base, eight feet long, and weigh- 

 ing upwards of 200 pounds. (Vol. i. 

 p. 225.) BEODEiap, in his Zoolot/ical 

 Jtecreatiotis, p. 256, says a tusk of 

 350 pounds' weight was sold at Am- 

 sterdam, but he does not quote his 

 authority. 



^ 3Ienaf/eries, ^-c, published by 

 the Society for the Difiusion of I'se- 

 fiil Knowledge, vol. i. p. 08 : " The 

 Elephant," ch. iii. It will be seen 

 that I have quoted repeatedly from 

 this volume, because it is the most 

 compendious and careful compila- 

 tion with which I am acquainted of 

 the information previously existing 

 regarding the elephant. The au- 

 thor incorporates no specidations of 

 his ovra, but has most diligently and 

 agi'eeably arranged all the facts col- 

 lected by his predecessors. The stoiy 

 of antipathy between the elephant 

 and rhinoceros is probably borrowed 

 from /Elian, ile Aar., lib. xvii. 

 c. 44. 



