Photo by M. E. F. Baird, Esq.
THE CHIEF OF CHIENGMAI'S CARRIAGE.
This victoria was drawn by a young Indian elephant.
In the southern portions of the African Continent the average standing height at the shoulder of full-grown bull elephants ranges from 10 feet to 10 feet 6 inches, though individuals have doubtless been met with in those districts which have much exceeded these dimensions. In North Central Africa the average standing height appears to be some inches higher, approaching 11 feet, and in those districts it is quite possible that individuals exist which exceed 12 feet in height. African cow elephants stand from 8 feet to 8 feet 6 inches at the shoulder. The Asiatic species is considerably smaller than the African, the average height of full-grown males not exceeding 9 feet, though certain individuals now and then attain to a much greater size, as is indicated by the fact that there is a mounted skeleton of an Indian elephant in the Museum at Calcutta which stands 11 feet 3 inches at the shoulder. In the size of its tusks the African elephant far surpasses the Asiatic species. In India a pair of tusks measuring 5 feet in length and weighing 70 lbs. the pair would, I think, be considered large, though an elephant was killed by Sir Victor Brooke in the Garo Hills with a single tusk measuring 8 feet in length, 17 inches in circumference, and weighing 90 lbs., and a few tusks even exceeding these dimensions have been recorded. In Southern Africa the tusks of full-grown bull elephants usually weigh from 80 to 120 lbs. the pair, and measure about 6 feet in length, with a circumference of from 16 to 18 inches; but these weights and measurements have often been much exceeded, and in my own experience I have known of two pairs of elephants' tusks having been obtained south of the Zambesi, each of which weighed slightly over 300 lbs., each tusk measuring upwards of 9 feet in length, whilst a single tusk brought from the neighbourhood of Lake Ngami in 1873 weighed 174 lbs. The average weight of cow-elephant tusks in Southern Africa is from 20 to 30 lbs. the pair, but I have seen the tusk of a cow elephant killed in Matabililand which weighed 39 lbs. and measured over 6 feet in length, whilst its fellow almost equalled it in size and weight. In North Central Africa, according to Sir Samuel Baker, the tusks of full-grown elephants average about 140 lbs. the pair, and tusks weighing upwards of 100 lbs. each are not at all uncommon, whilst many of a much greater size have been obtained.
Photo by M. E. F. Baird, Esq.
TIMBER-ELEPHANTS.
This photograph was taken at Lakou, in Upper Siam. Notice the large teak log in the foreground.
Until quite recently a tusk in the possession of Sir E. G. Loder, which weighs 184 lbs. and measures 9 feet 5 inches in length, with a circumference of 22½ inches, was supposed to be the largest in existence; but in 1899 two tusks were obtained near Kilimanjaro, in East Central Africa, both of which much exceed this weight. These enormous tusks were at first stated to be a pair taken from a single elephant; but though nearly equal in weight they are said to be differently shaped, and as their history is not yet fully known it is possible, though not probable, that they originally belonged to two different elephants. The larger of these two tusks has recently been purchased for the collection of the British Museum (Natural History), where it may now be seen. It weighs 228 lbs., measures 10 feet 2½ inches on the outside curve, and 24¼ in girth at the thickest part. The tusks of cow elephants are also considerably larger and heavier on the average in East Central and North Central Africa than in the southern portions of the continent.
