— 15 — 
tusk from Gorakhpur is said to have weighed 100 lbs. Both 
were from elephants with but one tusk perfect. Two pairs 
from the Garo hills are said to have weighed 157 and 155 lbs. 
respectively (‘Asian,’ October 16, 1888, p. 35).” 
In the Trivandrum Museum 1 saw a Travancore elephant’s 
tusk said to weigh 77 lbs. (34’92 kilogrammes). 
In the “Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society,” 
Yol. XI, No. 2 (1897), page 335, I gave some account of 
the collection of tusks then existing in the Royal Siamese 
Museum at Bangkok ; the measurements of the four finest 
pairs were as follows : — 
Length. 
Circumference. 
Notes. 
Pi. Ins. Ft. Ins. 
Inches. Inches. 
7 4Jr 7 
16| 16| 
A massive, even pair. 
Points o£ tusks much worn. 
7 7 8 
13i 13i 
8 3^ 8 4 
144 144 
A slender, symmetrical pair. 
909 lOf 
15| 15i 
These belonged to an elephant 
which is said to have died in 
Bangkok about the year 1877. 
4. — Age of Elephants. 
Mr. Blanford {loc. cit. siipra^ p. 446) writes ; “ An elephant 
is full grown, but not fully mature, at twenty-five years of 
age, and individuals have been known to live over 100 years 
in captivity ; in a wild state their existence probably extends 
to 150 years.” 
I much regret not to be able at present to agree with 
this statement. So far I have been unable to find any 
absolutely convincing evidence of an elephant living to the 
age of 100 years, and in regard to the last sentence it appears 
to me that it is probable that an elephant would live longer 
in captivity, carefully tended and guarded against accidents, 
than it would in a wild state, exposed to the many chances 
Elephants are mature at an earlier age than is commonly supposed. A pair of 
Asiatic elephants that were in my charge for nearly seven years became sexually adult 
when, we believe, between eleven and fourteen years old, and the female gave birth 
to a calf when she was about fourteen to sixteen years old. As far as m)" present 
observations go, African elephants reach matni-ity even earlier. 
