412 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT 



ing in the London Ivory Docks, cracked with a report as 

 loud as a pistol shot, owing to the contraction consequent 

 upon exposure to the cool air.* 



The two magnificent tusks now in the Bronx Zoological 

 Park, National Collection of Horns, were donated to the New 

 York Zoological Society by the late Charles T. Barney, at an 

 expense of $2,500; they are believed to be the longest, though 

 not the heaviest, in any collection from living species of 

 elephants. The respective lengths are 11 ft. 5 J in. and 11 

 ft., one having a circumference of 18 in., that of the other 

 being ISJ in.; the combined weight is 293 pounds. These 

 tusks are said to have been originally bestowed upon an 

 official of the French Government by Emperor Menelik 

 of Abyssinia. t The elephant from which they were taken 

 was a Soudanese example of the African species, Elephas 

 oxyotis. 



The Elephas imperator, which existed in the western part 

 of the North American Continent, appears to have been 

 the largest of all the species of elephants of prehistoric or 

 historic times. This receives confirmation from the size 

 of two somewhat imperfect tusks from one of this species 

 found in the tar-pits at Rancho la Brea, near Los Angeles, 

 California. These tusks have a diameter of eight inches, 

 and though incomplete, the length when perfect seems 

 to have been from 15 to 16 ft., considerably longer than 

 has been observed in the case of elephant remains of 

 other species. A curious circumstance in regard to the ele- 

 phant remains in the Rancho la Brea deposits is that while 

 not widely distributed therein, the bones of seventeen Im- 

 perial Elephants were found buried in pit nine, measuring 

 only 35 ft. in depth and about 30 ft. in diameter. To what 



*Mrs. Harris R. Childs "The Trade and Trail of Tuskers," in McClure's Magazine, 

 Vol. XXXII, p. 653, April, 1908. 



tSee Harpers Weekly, Vol. LI, p. 475, March 30, 1907. 



