38 TRAVELS IN 
tufks begin to be vifible in elephants at tlie 
carlieft age. I have in my colledlion two, 
taken from a fucking elephant, probably not 
more than three or four months old, which 
meafure only two inches and a half in length. 
'I'his is a peculiarity, however, in Africa only, 
and by no means in other countries ; fince it 
is as rare to find an elephant with tufks in the 
ifland of Ceylon, as without them at the Cape 
of Good-Hope. Of this f<x3: I have been af- 
fured by perfons, who have refided thirty year$ 
in the ifland, and were conftantly prefent at all 
the elephant-hunts, which take place there at 
ftated and regular periods. Among a hundred 
elephants taken on thofe occafions, to find 
two with tufks would be a phenomenon ; and 
of thofe furnifhed with fuch inftruments of 
defence, the tufl^s would not weigh more than 
fifteen or twenty pounds. 1 he females of the 
country of which I am fpeaking never fhow 
the leaft veftige of any ; w^hile at the Cape, of 
Good-Hope they are never without them of a 
larger or fmaller fize, and even the old males 
have formidable weapons ; for it is by no 
means uncommon to kill one of thefe with 
tufks, each of a hundred pounds weight, and 
there 
