ELEPHANT TUSKS 413 



particular causes this heaping up of elephant remains in so 

 small an area can be due is not easily explicable.* 



The ivory cellar of the great cutlery firm of Joseph Rodgers 

 & Sons, Ltd., at SheflSeld, England, is always kept stored 

 with an immense mass of the finest ivory, destined to be 

 worked up into knife-handles and scales. In 1878 these 

 accumulations amounted to 26 tons in weight, and consisted 

 of 2,561 tusks, averaging 22} pounds each. The value of 

 the ivory stored here at present — some fifteen tons- — is put 

 at $110,000. Some of the finest tusks acquired by the firm 

 are set up in the entrance hall leading to the showrooms. 

 The largest of these, to which we have already alluded, 

 measures 10 ft. in length and weighs 216 pounds, and along- 

 side stand a pair having the aggregate weight of 315 pounds, 

 and measuring 8 ft. 7 in. in length; three others, again, have 

 an average weight of 130 pounds. 



An expedition to secure specimens for a group of African 

 elephants to be set up in the American Museum of Natural 

 History in New York was organized in August, 1909. The 

 best single example secured was a young, adult bull, measur- 

 ing 11 ft. 3 in. in height and having tusks weighing 100 

 pounds and 102 pounds respectively. A curious circum- 

 stance is that the oldest bulls are those which have enjoyed 

 the protection of a large herd of aggressive cows. In one 

 instance when an exceedingly large bull-elephant had just 

 been killed, some of the females made desperate efforts to 

 lift him with their tusks and trunks, while others charged 

 about in every direction in search of the assailants. This 

 fine bull-elephant measured 11 ft. 4 in. in height, and one of 

 his tusks weighed 110 pounds. It is suggested that every 

 effort should now be made to obtain the finest living speci- 

 men of the African race before it is too late, as even at present 



*H. S. Swarth, "Guide to the Fossil Animals from Rancho la Brea," in the Museum 

 of History, Science, and Art, Los Angeles, 1915. p. 7. See p. 358 of present work. 



