DENTITION. 255 



the eye, yielded, and burst with a muffled crash. 

 The tusks were thus free, and turned right round 

 in his head, so that a man could draw them out, 

 and the carcase fell over and rested on its side. 

 This was a very first-rate elephant, and the tusks 

 he carried were long and perfect." 



It is not always, however, that the tusks will 

 stand a similar strain to this, as evidenced by what 

 the author just quoted tells us when describing the 

 conclusion of an elephant-hunt : 



"These two shots wound up the proceedings; 

 for, on receiving them, the animal backed stern fore- 

 most into the cover, and soon afterwards I heard 

 him fall over heavily but, alas ! the sound was ac- 

 companied by a sharp crack, and, on running for- 

 ward, I found him lying dead, with his lovely tusk, 

 which lay under, snapped through the middle." 



Dentition in the elephant is very curious and 

 interesting. Besides the tusks, which correspond 

 to the canine teeth in other quadrupeds, he has only 

 grinders the incisors, or cutting-teeth, being en- 

 tirely absent. The total number of grinders con- 

 sists of from twenty to twenty-three teeth, or rather 

 lamina, in each side of either jaw ; but, from t lie whole 

 being enclosed in a bony case, theyhavo the appear- 

 ance of forming only a single tooth or grinder. A very 

 great number of years are supposed to be requisite 

 for the full development of a set of grinders ; indeed 

 they may be said never to bo completed, for, as one 

 set gradually wears away another is forming, a pro- 

 cess which continues to the end of life. They are 

 never supplied from beneath (as in animals in 



