ELEPHANT. 



399 



thatof the under side; and when it curls round, which substance, the ivory of commerce, and they often 

 it sometimes does so as to form two hands, one by the attain a very large size in the old males, the q'uantity 



- iK ~ ' of ivory in a single pair being sometimes at least one 

 hundred and fifty pounds weight. 



In the living elephants of both varieties, the tusks are 

 either nearly straight, or curved upwards, or if their di- 

 rection be nearly thatof the line of the face they are in- 

 clined 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 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 country 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 pro- 

 bable that the northern marshes were at that time 

 covered with tree ferns, and those other palm-like 

 plants, of which the remains are abundant in the 

 fossil state, though not a vestige of the same plants 

 now appears on the surface of the same regions, we 

 may, perhaps, venture to conclude, that those tnsks 

 had been employed in pulling down the fronds of 

 those plants, in order that the animals might feed 

 upon them. 



The tusks of the elephant are two in number, and 

 they vary much with the age and sex of the indivi- 

 dual, and there appear to be also permanent varieties 

 of this kind, the cause of which is not known. In the 

 females they are generally much smaller than in the 

 males ; and it is not till the female has attained the age 

 of several years, that they project, beyond the month. 

 In India, where elephants are most used, and there- 

 fore more attended to than any other part of the 

 world, there are several distinctions made from the 

 size and shape of those extremities. The perfect 

 elephant, called pullet/ dant, has the tusks projecting 

 forwards and upwards. These called dauntelali, or 

 elephants with large teeth, vary from the projecting 

 horizontal, to the nearly straight tusks of the mook- 

 nah, which point directly downwards. Between 

 these two there is a great variety in the form of the 

 tusks. The largest teeth found in the male elephant, 

 are from five to eight feet in length, and from four to 

 eight inches in diameter, and weiyh from twenty to 

 eighty pounds each tooth. In the mode of their 

 growth, though not in their substance, their tusks 

 bear a much nearer resemblance to the hollow Jiorns 

 of the ruminantia ; and, indeed, from the vast quan- 

 tity of animal matter, and the comparatively small 

 portion of salts of lime, ivory approaches, perhaps, 

 as near to horn as it does to bone, and more so 

 than to enamel, of which the tusks of the elephant 

 contain little or none. In their very young si ate. 

 elephants have milk tusks, which have very little 

 adherence to the bones of the head : those drop o t' 

 when the animal is about fourteen or fifteen month - 

 old, and soon after the permanent tusks make their 

 appearance, and are not shed while the animal lives. 

 They continue growing by a new layer of ivory on 

 the inner surface, which is secreted by the pulpy 

 substance on the core filling the hollow, just as is the 

 case with the horn of an ox ; and as each of these 

 new lavers is a complete cone of ivory, extending 

 to the very point of the core, the solid part of the 

 tusk increases in length, in proportion to the general 

 growth of the whole. 



There are no cutting teeth in the lower jaw of the 



curling fold, and one by the lip and tubercle at the 

 end, the curl is always downwards, though it can com- 

 plete a ring of the curl someway up the trunk, and 

 leave a portion of the extremity free, by which means 

 the prehensile part at the extremity can act upon 

 what is held in the fold. The oblique muscles enable 

 the trunk to be twisted, so as to place the loop of the 

 fold longitudinally ; and with the trunk placed this 

 way an elephant will hold a bottle and extract a 

 cork with the greatest neatness. The oblique muscles 

 also act in elongating and shortening the trunk, in a 

 manner similar to that in which many of the Annelidce, 

 or ringed animals can elongate and shorten their whole 

 bodies. The trunk itself, from the great number of 

 its muscles, is a very powerful instrument, and by means 

 of it the animal can tear down a strong branch of a 

 tree, lift a considerable weight, or hit a very severe 

 blow. Upon examining the head of an elephant 

 either in front or in profile, it will be seen that the 

 insenion of the- trunk is peculiarly strong. The bones 

 of the lower part of the face are massy and strongly 

 arched ; the neck is nearly of the same thickness as 

 the head, and the muscles by which it is connected to 

 the body are very powerful. The elephant does not 

 butt with this powerful part of the head, as is done by 

 various ruminating animals : but it can push along a 

 very heavy weight, or break through a strong paling, 

 by the dead pressure of its snout. Where tame 

 elephants are used, this property is often turned to 

 considerable account ; and those elephants which 

 are in the service of the Indian merchants, may often 

 be seen doing the work of a dozen of porters, in 

 pushing about bales and boxes, and rolling heavy 

 casks. In the wild state the trunk answers many im- 

 portant services. With it he gathers his food and 

 puts it into his mouth, draws up water to quench his 

 thirst, or to sprinkle his body, urid collects dust, which 

 he throws over his skin to disperse the musquitoes and 

 flies that annoy him. On all occasions he is most care- 

 ful of his trunk, and unless when tied and picketed, he 

 seldom uses it as a means of offence. The males use 

 their tusks for this purpose, and the females endeavour, 

 by failing upon the tiger, to crush him by their weight. 

 The fact is that though elephants are exceedingly 

 peaceable animals in their native haunts, unless when 

 they are annoyed, or in the rutting season of the 

 males, at which time they are in a state of excitement 

 bordering: upon fury, and are formidable to tigers and 

 all other beasts of prey, and even to the rhinoceros 

 himself, which, though perhaps a stronger animal in 

 proportion to his size than the elephant, is not so 

 susceptible of violent passions or so active in his 

 motions. 



Next to the trunk the most remarkable external 

 character of the elephant is the tusks. These occupy 

 the place of the ordinary canine teeth of animals, or 

 rather perhaps that of the two great incisive teeth in 

 the upper jaw, which belong to several of the rodent or 

 gnawing animals, and to some of which the real teeth 

 of the elephant bear a considerable resemblance, at 

 least in trie substances of which they are composed. 

 The teeth, or rather tusks of the elephant, are not 

 inserted by simple roots into the jaw or nasal bones, 

 they are for a considerable part of their length toward 

 the root hollow, and inserted on a conical core which 

 perhaps gives them a firmer rooting than if they were 

 placed in sockets. These teeth form the well known 



