408 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT 



few months ago, a young hunter named Parr was killed in 

 Rhodesia.* 



The following recital by the elephant hunter, James 

 Sutherland, of a combat between two bull-elephants in 

 equatorial Africa, illustrates the immense power of the 

 thrust of these animals. He says if 



"The larger bull staggering perceptibly under the furious 

 onslaught appeared for some moments as if he were going 

 to fall, but, recovering his equilibrium, and as if fulty intent 

 on avenging the injury, returned the charge and dealt his 

 foe a crushing blow on the shoulder, sideways, with his tusk. 

 The punishment must have been severe, for the younger 

 elephant at once backed out of the fray, but, regaining his 

 courage, pluckily resumed the contest by rushing forward 

 and giving the big fellow a tremendous prod in the shoulder, 

 the force of the thrust snapping off a piece of his tusk. This 

 broken portion I afterward found and kept as a memento 

 of the only elephant fight I ever saw. . . . The tusk of 

 the smaller animal was broken in two places, but the first 

 piece forming the tip was never found." 



The combatants soon found a more deadly enemy in the 

 European hunter who brought both of them to the ground 

 with two well-aimed shots. The enormous strength of this 

 animal was here strikingly exhibited in the fracturing of so 

 tough a material as ivory in the body of its antagonist. 



One of the heaviest tusks from East Africa was brought 

 to Europe by a Hamburg firm of ivory dealers and was sold 

 to the late King of Bavaria, the eccentric and gifted Ludwig 

 II, who destined it to be used as a chandelier. This tusk 

 weighed 94 kilograms (207 pounds) and measured 2.6 meters 

 (8 ft. 4 in.) in length.| 



*Su?iday Times, Johannesburg, Transvaal, February 22, 1914. 



tJames Sutherland, "The Adventures of an Elephant Hunter," London, 1912, pp. 95- 

 98. 



tSomborn, "Die Elfenbein-und Beinschnitzerei," Heidelberg, 1899, p. 18. 



