Chap. II.] 
THE ELEPHANT. 
79 
plants; and hence tushes are seldom seen without a 
groove worn into them near their extremities. 1 
Amongst other surmises more ingenious than sound, 
the general absence of tusks in the elephant of Ceylon 
has been associated with the profusion of rivers and 
streams in the island ; whilst it has been thrown out as 
a possibility that in Africa, where water is comparatively 
scarce, the animal is equipped with these implements in 
order to assist it in digging wells in the sand and in 
raising the juicy roots of the mimosas and succulent 
plants for the sake of their moisture. In support of this 
hypothesis, it has been observed, that whilst the tusks 
of the Ceylon species, which are never required for such 
uses, are slender, graceful and curved, seldom ex- 
ceeding fifty or sixty pounds' weight, those of the 
African elephant are straight and thick, weighing occa- 
sionally one hundred and fifty, and even three hundred 
pounds. 2 
1 The old fallacy is still renewed, and become the "permanent tusks," 
that the elephant sheds his tusks, which are never shed. 
.ZElian says he drops them once in 2 Notwithstandingthe inferiority 
ten years (lib. xiv. c. 5) ; and Pliny in weight of the Ceylon tusks, as 
repeats the story, adding that, compared with those of the ele- 
when dropped, the elephants hide phant of India, it would, I think, 
them under ground (lib. viii.) be precipitate to draw the inference 
whence Shaw says, in his Zoology, that the size of the former was 
" they are frequently found in the uniformly and naturally less than 
woods," and exported from Africa that of the latter. The truth, I 
(vol. i. p. 213); and Sir "W. Jar- believe to be, that if permitted to 
dine in the Naturalist's Library grow to maturity, the tusks of the 
(vol. ix. p. 110), says, "the tusks one would, in all probability, equal 
are shed about the twelfth or thir- those of the other ; but, so eager 
teenth year." This is erroneous : is the search for ivory in Ceylon, 
after losing the first pair, or, as that a tusker, when once observed 
they are called, the " milk tusks," in a herd, is followed up with such 
which drop in consequence of the vigilant impatience, that he is al- 
absorption of their roots, when the most invariably shot before attain- 
animal is extremely young, the ing his full growth. General De 
second pair acquire their full size, Lima, when returning from the 
