248 THE ELEPHANT. 



This fact is a confirmation of B usher's account of 

 the animal playing at ball. One of the elephants in 

 the Jardin des Plantes is extremely expert at playing 

 with a log of wood, which it often does to the 

 great amusement of the crowd. 



The tusks of the elephant, another of its striking 

 features, which not only serve it as weapons of offence 

 or defence, as the case may be, but enable it to ob- 

 tain a large portion of its sustenance, are deeply 

 imbedded in the upper jaw of the skull, on either 

 side of the trunk. Nearly one-third of their whole 

 length is occupied by the sockets, which, as long as 

 the teeth continue to grow, are very thin. When 

 this is no longer the case, the sides of the hollow 

 become somewhat more solid, whilst the pulp is 

 gradually absorbed. Thus, in old female elephants, 

 it has been observed that the sockets were nearly 

 filled up with ivory, and it is a great wonder 

 how the animals were able to balance or retain 

 them. 



The tusks of the female African elephant are, as 

 I have said, comparatively small, averaging probably 

 not more than twelve or fifteen pounds each ; the 

 largest I ever heard of did not weigh more than 

 twenty-nine pounds. Those of a full-grown male 

 are occasionally many times heavier. During my 

 visit to Lake Ngami, I saw several varying from 

 eighty to one hundred pounds each ; and I 

 have been given to understand that, both on the 

 cast and west coasts of Africa, tusks exceeding: one 



' O 



hundred poundsjarcjijyja^^ The 



aggregate weight of two tusks of a _male elephant 



