422 
ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA 
CHAP. 
I have already given the weights of several of my heaviest 
pairs of tusks. Those of the big bulls of the exclusive age 
(that is, old fellows who do not consort with cows) may be 
expected to weigh on the average about 70 lbs. or 80 lbs. 
apiece—say from 60 lbs. to 90 lbs.—while “ herd-bulls’ ” teeth 
scale about 50 lbs. generally. Good cow teeth vary from 
12 lbs. to 24 lbs. apiece. My heaviest pair of the latter weigh 
36 lbs. each, but these are quite exceptionally large. The 
heaviest bull tusk I have weighs 1 16 lbs., and I got several 
elephants with tusks of about a hundredweight apiece. The 
(x) 116 9 o 
(2) 114 8 1 1 8£ 
(3) Cow tusks 36 6 6 1 o£ 
My Large Elephant Tusks. 
amount lost in drying varies very much ; the one just mentioned 
lost only 1 lb., while another I have, which originally weighed 
nearly as much, lost 7 lbs. The ivory of very old elephants, I 
believe, loses less than that of younger animals, but I have found 
that, as a rule, the difference between fresh and dry only amounts 
to 2 or 3 lbs., even on a large tooth, in the country I write of. 
Thus it appears that the elephants of the central part of 
the continent exceed those of both the northern and southern 
portions—judging from what one reads and hears—alike in 
stature and size of tusks. 1 I may add that I have never yet 
1 The heaviest tusks known of seem to have come from East Equatorial Africa— e.g. 
Sir Edmund Loder’s record one of 184 lbs., measuring 9 ft. 5 in. along the curve (and 
I almost think an even more ponderous specimen was once brought to Zanzibar, though 
sawn in two pieces), and one of 165 lbs. which was presented to the Duke of Ydrk by the 
officials of British East Africa. 
