point is continually wearing by friction. They
vary indefinitely in length ; but some are recorded
of immense magnitude. Several tusks, measured
by Eden, were nine feet in length, and one, de-
scribed by Hartenfels, was in the possession of a
Venetian merchant, which exceeded fourteen feet.
The same writer has given 325 lbs. as the weight
of a tusk, and one is on record as having been
sold at Amsterdam, on the authority of Klokner,
which weighed 350 Ibs. ‘The tusk is hollow for a
considerable part of its length, and the cavity contains a living pulp, which is continually supplying
new layers of ivory to the interior surface.
As the Elephant’s stomach is not endowed with a ruminating power, the herbaceous food destined for its nourishment requires to be well masticated by the grinding action of the molar teeth. The wearing away of their crowns by this constant action would soon reduce them to an useless condition, and hence the life of the animal would be very short, were there not some mode of renewing them. For to an herbivorous animal the wearing away of teeth that cannot be renewed, is precursive of a speedy death, and in most cases the decay of the teeth is simultaneous with a general decay of the constitution; a merciful provision, without which herbivorous animals would inevitably be starved to death. ‘‘ The teeth of the deer and sheep,” observes Sir E. Home, “‘are worn down in a much less time than fifteen years; those of horned cattle in twenty years; those of the horse in forty or fifty years; while those of the Elephant last a century: if the animal were to grow to double its present size, there is a provision for the continuance of the teeth: but as soon
