ELEPHANT, TAPIR, HYRAX, RHINOCEROS 175 



Phott by la. E. F. Laird, 19. 



TIMBER-ELEPHANTS 



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



cutta which stands 1 1 feet 3 inches at the shoulder. In the size of its tusks the African ele- 

 phant 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 

 1 20 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 Ngami 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 equaled 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. G. 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 differ- 

 ently 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 Museum (Natural History), where it may now be 



