The Elephant 7 



tusks of either bull or cow elephants were of unequal size and weight, 

 owing to the fact that one tusk had been exclusively used for digging, 

 nor do I think that in the parts of the country with which I am acquainted 

 the tusks were commonly used for this purpose. I have often seen acres 

 of sandy ground dug into holes by a large herd of elephants in search of 

 roots, but the digging was not done with their tusks. The modus operandi 

 was this : the position of a root underground having been first located by 

 the outstretched proboscis through the sense of smell, the elephant then 

 dug down to it with his fore-foot, scraping out the sand, and throwing it 

 backwards, just as a dog may be seen to do when trying to unearth a rat. 

 When the coveted root was laid bare — it was usually one of the horizontal 

 roots of a growing tree — the elephant would stoop down, and, getting his 

 tusk underneath it, prise it up, and after breaking it in two, pull the 

 tapering end out of the ground with his trunk, and after munching it for 

 the sake of the sap and the bark, spit the wood out. Upon three several 

 occasions I have found a piece of a tusk about a foot in length freshly 

 broken off, jammed under a root, which it had not been strong enough to 

 break in two. Two of these broken tusks were those of cows, but one 

 was that of a big bull, the piece broken off weighing at least 10 lbs. 

 When an elephant has broken the end off one of his tusks, he soon wears 

 the rough edges off the broken surface, and becomes what is known in 

 South Africa as a stump-tusked elephant. Old elephant cows often have 

 both their tusks much worn down and their ends flattened on each side, 

 forming a wedge-shaped point ; and I used to think that this wearing away 

 of their tusks had been done, not so much by actual work whilst obtaining 

 food, as by rubbing them against trees, in the same way that buffaloes and 

 antelopes wear away their horns when old. Elephants, however, which 

 live in countries where the soil is soft and sandy, usually carry perfect 

 tusks, very even both in weight and shape. On the other hand, elephants 

 which frequent broken, hilly country, where the soil is hard and stony, 



