414 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT
old
bulls have become exceedingly rare, for when a bull-elephant has
developed tusks weighing, say, 50 pounds, he does not usually long
escape the zeal of the hunters for ivory, either natives or foreigners.*
The
National Museum at Dublin, Ireland, possesses an exceptionally fine
elephant tusk weighing 176 lbs. It was brought from the Uganda region
in equatorial Africa and measures about 6 ft. 3 in. in length. The
circumference taken at the middle of the tusk is 23 in., at the socket
a trifle less; owing to slight irregularity of the oval the diameter at
the socket varies at different points from 6-1/2 to 7-1/2 in. This fine
tusk was originally the property of Mr. Graham Pownall.f
A
beautiful and symmetrical pair of tusks belong to the
Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company. The longer measures 8 ft. 3 in.,
the other one being but l-1/2 in. shorter. In circumference also there
is very little difference, the longer tusk having a girth of 18 in. and
the shorter one of 17| in. This comparative evenness of size coupled
with an exceedingly graceful curve combine to render the tusks real
ornaments. The comparatively slight difference between the
measurements along the curve and that between perpendiculars, in one
case 8 in., in the other case 7-1/2 in., shows the gracefulness of the
curve in these tusks.
Two
heavy tusks were secured by the elephant hunter, James Sutherland, when
he brought down a big bull-elephant with a single well-aimed shot
through the forehead to the brain. The heavier of the tusks weighed 152
pounds
"Carl E. Akeley, "Elephant Hunting in Equatorial Africa," in the Museum Journal, Vol.
XII, No. 2, pp. 43-62; February, 1912. (Illustration of large bull with
110-pound tusk, on p. 49, copyright by Carl E. Akeley).
tCommunicated
by Dr. R. S. Scharff of the National Museum, Dublin, Ireland. The tusk
weighing 175 pounds and having a circumference of 23f noted in Rowland
Ward's "Records of Big Game," was owned by Graham Pownall, and may be
the other one of a pair, although the great difference in length makes
this improbable.
