78 MAMMALIA. [Cuapr. II. 
have forced the animals to retire to the low country, 
where again they have been followed by large parties of 
European sportsmen ; and the Singhalese themselves, be- 
ing more freely provided with arms than in former times, 
have assisted in swelling the annual slaughter.! 
Had the motive that incites to the destruction of the 
elephant in Africa and India prevailed in Ceylon, that is, 
had the elephants there been provided with tusks, they 
would long since have been annihilated for the sake of 
their ivory.2 But it is a curious fact that, whilst in 
Africa and India both sexes have tusks’, with some 
slight disproportion in the size of those of the females ; 
not one elephant in a hundred is found with tusks in 
Ceylon, and the few that possess them are exclusively 
males. Nearly all, however, have those stunted pro- 
cesses called tushes, about ten or twelve inches in 
length and one or two in diameter. These I have ob- 
served them to use in loosening earth, stripping off bark, 
and snapping asunder small branches and climbing 
1 The number of elephants has 
been similarly reduced throughout 
the south of India. 
2 The annual importation of 
ivory into Great Britain alone, for 
the last few years, has been about 
one million pounds; which, taking 
the average weight of a tusk at 
sixty pounds, would require the 
slaughter of 8,333 male elephants. 
But of this quantity the impor- 
tation from Ceylon has generally 
averaged only five or six hundred 
weight; which, making allowance 
for the lightness of the tusks, would 
not involve the destruction of more 
than seven or eight in each year. 
At the same time, this does not 
fairly represent the annual number 
of tuskers shot in Ceylon, not only 
because a portion of the ivory finds 
its way to China and to other 
places, but because the chiefs and 
Buddhist priests have a passion for 
collecting tusks, and the finest and 
largest are to be found ornament- 
ing their temples and private 
dwellings. The Chinese profess 
that for their exquisite carvings the 
ivory of Ceylon excels all other, 
both in density pf texture and in 
delicacy of tint; but in the Eu- 
ropean market, the ivory of Africa, 
from its more distinct graining 
and other causes, obtains a higher 
price. 
8 A writer in the India Sporting 
Review for October 1857 says, “In 
Malabar a tuskless male elephant 
i ; I have seen but two.” —p. 
157. 
