The Elephant, Tapir, Hyrax, and Rhinoceros 175 



Photo by M. E. F. Baird, Esq. 



TIMBER-ELEPHANTS. 

 This photograph was taken at Lakou, in Upper Siam. Notice the large teak log in the foreground. 



shoulder. In the size of its tusks the African elephant far surpasses the Asiatic species. In 

 India a pair of tusks measuring 5 feet in length and weighing 70 Ibs. the pair would, I think, 

 be considered large, though an elephant was killed by Sir Victor Brooke in the Garo Hills with 

 a single tusk measuring 8 feet in length, 17 inches in circumference, and weighing 90 Ibs., 

 and a few tusks even exceeding these dimensions have been recorded. In Southern Africa 

 the tusks of full-grown bull elephants usually weigh from 80 to 120 Ibs. the pair, and 

 measure about 6 feet in length, with a circumference of from 16 to 18 inches; but these 

 weights and measurements have often been much exceeded, and in my own experience I have 

 known of two pairs of elephants' tusks having been obtained south of the Zambesi, each of 

 which weighed slightly over 300 Ibs., each tusk measuring upwards of 9 feet in length, whilst 

 a single tusk brought from the neighbourhood of Lake N garni in 1873 weighed 174 Ibs. 

 The average weight of cow-elephant tusks in Southern Africa is from 20 to 30 Ibs. the pair, 

 but I have seen the tusk of a cow elephant killed in Matabililand which weighed 39 Ibs. 

 and measured over 6 feet in length, whilst its fellow almost equalled it in size and weight. 

 In North Central Africa, according to Sir Samuel Baker, the tusks of full-grown elephants 

 average about 140 Ibs. the pair, and tusks weighing upwards of 100 Ibs. each are not at all 

 uncommon, whilst many of a much greater size have been obtained. 



Until quite recently a tusk in the possession of Sir E. Gr. Loder, which weighs 184 Ibs. 

 and measures 9 feet 5 inches in length, with a circumference of 22 inches, was supposed 

 to be the largest in existence; but in 1899 two tusks were obtained near Kilimanjaro, in 

 East Central Africa, both of which much exceed this weight. These enormous tusks were at 

 first stated to be a pair taken from a single elephant ; but though nearly equal in weight 

 they are said to be differently shaped, and as their history is not yet fully known it is 

 possible, though not probable, that they originally belonged to two different elephants. The 

 larger of these two tusks has recently been purchased for the collection of the British 



