TUSKS USED IN DIGGING 131 



elongated thing with two nostrils at the end which we call 

 the elephant's trunk, and was henceforth transmitted (a 

 first-rate example of an " acquired character ") to future 

 generations ! The real origin of the elephant's trunk is 

 (as I will explain later) a different one from that 

 handed down to us in the delightful jungle-book. I 

 do not believe in the hereditary transmission of acquired 

 modifications ! 



Topsell may or may not be right as to the result produced 

 on elephants by the sight of a beautiful woman. In Africa 

 the experiment would be a difficult one, and even in India 

 inconclusive. Topsell seems, however, to have come 

 across correct information about the digging for water by 

 an African elephant by the use of his great tusks — those 

 tusks for the gain of which he is now being rapidly 

 exterminated by man. Serious drought is frequent in 

 Africa, and a cause of death to thousands of animals. 

 African elephants, working in company, are known to have 

 excavated holes in dried-up river beds to the depth of 2 5 ft. 

 in a single night in search of water. It is probable that 

 the Indian elephant's tusk would not be of service in such 

 digging, and it is to be noted that he is rather an inhabi- 

 tant of high ground and table-lands than of tropical 

 plains liable to flood and to drought. The tusk of the 

 Indian elephant has become merely a weapon of attack for 

 the male, and there are even local breeds in which it is 

 absent in the males as well-, as in the females. The 

 mammoth was a near cousin of the Indian elephant, and 

 inhabited cold uplands and the fringes of sub- Arctic forests, 

 on which he fed. His tusks were very large, and curved 

 first outward and then inward at the tips. They would 

 not have served for heavy digging, and probably were used 

 for forcing a way through the forest and as a protection to 

 the face and trunk. 



The trunk of the elephant was called " a hand " by old 



