THE MAMMOTH. 
2T5 
With regard to the tusks of the Mammoth, which are consider- 
ably larger than those of either the African or Indian elephant, it 
is evident that they must have been of some service, for Nature 
would never have endowed the animal with such great and 
ponderous instruments — to support which the skull is greatly 
modified in both the Mammoth and elephant — without some 
definite purpose. We have often been asked how the Mammoth 
used his tusks.; now, this question can best be answered by 
reference to the habits of living elephants. The elephant of to-day 
is a fairly peaceable creature, but, if attacked, can despatch the 
aggressor in various ways. Some enemies he can crush under 
his feet ; a man he can pick up with his trunk and hurl to a con- 
siderable distance, probably with fatal results. But the tusks do 
not appear to be used as weapons of offence or defence. We 
must consider how the animal feeds. The general food of 
the elephant consists of the foliage of trees. In Africa it feeds 
largely on mimosas. Now, it is clear that, in spite of having a 
long trunk, an elephant cannot obtain all the leaves of a tall tree 
while the tree remains standing ; mimosa trees, for instance, are 
often thirty feet high, and have richer foliage at the crown. So 
it appears that they actually overturn them. On this point we 
have the testimony of Sir Samuel Baker, who says, The 
destruction caused by a herd of elephants in a mimosa forest is 
extraordinary, and I have seen trees uprooted of so large a size 
that I am convinced no single elephant could have overturned 
them. I have measured trees four feet six inches in circumfer- 
ence, and about thirty feet high, uprooted by elephants. The 
natives assured me that the elephants mutually assist each other, 
and that several engage together in the work of overturning a 
large tree. None of the mimosas have tap-roots ; thus the 
powerful tusks of the elephants applied as crowbars at the roots, 
while others pull at the branches with their trunks, will effect the 
destruction of a tree so large as to appear invulnerable.” Another 
writer says the elephant also feeds on a variety of bulbs, the 
