422 ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA chap. 



I have already given the weights of several of my heaviest 

 pairs of tusks. Those of the big bulls of the exclusive age 

 (that is, old fellows who do not consort with cows) may be 

 expected to weigh on the average about 70 lbs. or 80 lbs. 

 apiece — say from 60 lbs. to 90 lbs. — while " herd-bulls' " teeth 

 scale about 50 lbs. generally. Good cow teeth vary from 

 12 lbs. to 24 lbs. apiece. My heaviest pair of the latter weigh 

 36 lbs. each, but these are quite exceptionally large. The 

 heaviest bull tusk I have weighs i 1 6 lbs., and I got several 

 elephants with tusks of about a hundredweight apiece. The 



Weight. Length. Girth 



My Large Elephant Tusks. 



amount lost in drying varies very much ; the one just mentioned 

 lost only I lb., while another I have, which originally weighed 

 nearly as much, lost 7 lbs. The ivory of very old elephants, I 

 believe, loses less than that of younger animals, but I have found 

 that, as a rule, the difference between fresh and dry only amounts 

 to 2 or 3 lbs., even on a large tooth, in the country I write of 

 Thus it appears that the elephants of the central part of 

 the continent exceed those of both the northern and southern 

 portions — ^judging from what one reads and hears — alike in 

 stature and size of tusks.^ I may add that I have never yet 



1 The heaviest tusks known of seem to have come from East Equatorial Africa — e.g. 

 Sir Edmund Loder's record one of 184 lbs., measuring 9 ft. 5 in. along the curve (and 

 I almost think an even more ponderous specimen was once brought to Zanzibar, though 

 sawn in two pieces), and one of 165 lbs. which was presented to the Duke of York by the 

 officials of British East Africa. 



