SIZE OF THE TUSKS. 
253 
under some large trees. I approached within thirty 
paces, unobserved by them. One had his head 
towards me, and I distinctly saw that he had a 
large pair of tusks, I should think about sixty 
pounds each. The other was broadside on, his head 
partly concealed by the trees, but there was no mis¬ 
taking the size of the two elephants, the latter being 
much the larger of the two. I accordingly selected 
him, and killed him; but to my disgust, I found 
his tusks absurdly small. I remember perfectly the 
weight of these tusks, as I put them on the steel¬ 
yards when they reached the waggon, and the two 
weighed twenty-one pounds—eleven and ten each. 
I do not believe, as some hunters have asserted, 
that, as a general rule, the smaller bulls have the 
larger tusks. The largest-tusked elephants which I 
have killed, have been, with one or two exceptions, 
the largest elephants, and several shot in the Mat- 
tabili country, by my brother and self, were gigantic 
in their proportions.” 
Somewhat corroborative of my friend’s theory as 
to the difficulty of judging the age of the elephant 
by the size of his tusks, I may mention that I re¬ 
member once killing a bull, the tusks of which, not¬ 
withstanding the stupendous size of the animal, 
who measured twenty-six feet from foot to foot 
across the shoulder, only weighed about one hun¬ 
dred and thirty pounds. 
The tusks, it is to be observed, are very firmly 
embedded in the elephant’s skull, of which, indeed, 
they would seem to form a portion, for, though they 
may break, they can never be extracted from it during 
