258 WILD ANIMALS. 



to pull a heavy -weight with, the trunk. In carrying a light log 

 they hold it in the mouth as a dog does a stick, receiving some 

 little assistance in balancing it from the trunk." 



The tusks constitute another striking feature of this strange 

 animal, and in them we see the reason the head is made so 

 massively. The brain appears to occupy but a small space, being 

 far from large for so huge a creature and weighing only about 

 nine pounds, the rest of the gigantic skull, which is not as heavy 

 as is generally supposed, consists not only of huge bones, but 

 is also largely composed of air-cells that form the mechanical 

 support for the tusks and supply the extensive surface required 

 for the attachment of the numerous muscles. 



" Dentition in the elephant is very curious and interesting," 

 remarks Mr. Andersson. " Besides the tusks, which correspond 

 mth the canine teeth in other quadrupeds, he has only grinders — 

 the incisors or cutting-teeth being entirely absent. The total 

 number of grinders consist of from twenty to twenty-three teeth, 

 or rather laminae, in each side of either jaw, but from the whole 

 being enclosed in a bony case they have the appearance of forming 

 only a single tooth or grinder. A very great number of years 

 are supposed to be requisite for the full development of a set of 

 grinders ; indeed they may be said never to be completed, for as 

 one set gradually wears away another is forming, a process which 

 continues till the end of life. They are never supplied from 

 beneath (as in animals in general), but from behind, from which 

 circumstance they are not shed." The elephant may, therefore, 

 be said to be in a constant state of teething. 



A strange argument has been carried on for some years upon a 

 point that stUl seems to be unsettled — some writers assert that 

 the small milk teeth in the young animal are shed at the expiration 

 of the second year and replaced by the permanent tusks, but this 

 is denied by others, among them no less an authority than Mr. 

 Sanderson, who says it is an error, the first tusks are permanent, 

 and that he himself made particularly careful inquiries from 

 experienced elephant attendants, and found them unanimous in 

 dissenting from any such process of renewal, and he has many 

 young elephants in his charge and never noticed anything of the 



