nce that the size of the former
was uniformly and naturally less than that of the latter. The truth, I
believe to be, that if permitted to grow to maturity, the tusks of the
one would, in all probability, equal those of the other; but, so eager
is the search for ivory in Ceylon, that a tusker, when once observed in
a herd, is followed up with such vigilant impatience, that he is almost
invariably shot before attaining his full growth. General DE LIMA, when
returning from the governorship of the Portuguese settlements at
Mozambique, told me, in 1848, that he had been requested to procure two
tusks of the largest size, and straightest possible shape, which were to
be formed into a cross to surmount the high altar of the cathedral at
Goa: he succeeded in his commission, and sent two, one of which was 180
pounds, and the other 170 pounds' weight, with the slightest possible
curve. In a periodical, entitled _The Friend_, published in Ceylon, it
is stated in the volume for 1837 that the officers belonging to the
ships Quorrah and Alburhak, engaged in the Niger Expedition, were shown
by a native king two tusks, each two feet and a half in circumference at
the base, eight feet long, and weighing upwards of 200 pounds. (Vol. i.
p. 225.) BRODERIP, in his _Zoological Recreations_, p. 255, says a tusk
of 350 pounds' weight was sold at Amsterdam, but he does not quote his
authority.]

But it is manifestly inconsistent with the idea that tusks were given to
the elephant to assist him in digging for his food, to find that the
females are less bountifully supplied with them than the males, whilst
the necessity for their use extends equally to both sexes. The same
argument serves to demonstrate the fallacy of the conjecture, that the
tusks of the elephant were given to him as weapons of offence, for if
such were the case the vast majority in Ceylon, males as well as
females, would be left helpless in presence of an assailant. But
although in their conflicts with one another, those which are provided
with tusks may occasionally push with them clumsily at their opponents;
it is a misapprehension to imagine that tusks are designed specially to
serve "in warding off the attacks of the wily tiger and the furious
rhinoceros, often securing the victory by one blow which transfixes the
assailant to the earth."[1]

[Footnote 1: _Menageries, &c._, published by the Society for the
Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, vol. i. p. 68: "The Elephant," ch.