A Ceylon Sportsman Arriving In Africa Would Naturally Examine The
Skull Of The African Elephant, And When Once Certain Of The
Position Of The Brain He Would Require No Further Information.
Leave him alone for hitting it if he knew where it was.
What a sight for a Ceylon elephant-hunter would be the first view
of a herd of African elephants - all tuskers! In Ceylon, a
"tusker" is a kind of spectre, to be talked of by a few who have
had the good luck to see one. And when he is seen by a good
sportsman, it is an evil hour for him - he is followed till he
gives up his tusks.
It is a singular thing that Ceylon is the only part of the world
where the male elephant has no tusks; they have miserable little
grubbers projecting two or three inches from the upper jaw and
inclining downward. Thus a man may kill some hundred elephants
without having a pair of tusks in his possession. The largest
that I have seen in Ceylon were about six feet long, and five
inches in diameter in the thickest part. These would be
considered rather below the average in Africa, although in Ceylon
they were thought magnificent.
Nothing produces either ivory or horn in fine specimens
throughout Ceylon. Although some of the buffaloes have tolerably
fine heads, they will not bear a comparison with those of other
countries. The horns of the native cattle are not above four
inches in length.
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