In
Abyssinia and Taka, a single tusk of a bull elephant seldom
exceeds forty pounds, nor do they average more than twenty-five,
but in Central Africa they average about forty, and I have seen
them upwards of one hundred and fifty pounds. The largest that I
have had the good fortune to bag was eighty pounds; the
fellow-tusk was slightly below seventy. Elephants invariably use
one tusk in preference, as we use the right hand; thus it is
difficult to obtain an exact pair, as the Hadam (or servant), as
the Arabs call the working tusk, is generally much worn. The
African elephant is a more decided tree-feeder than the Indian,
and the destruction committed by a large herd of such animals
when feeding in a mimosa forest is extraordinary; they
deliberately march forward, and uproot or break down every tree
that excites their appetite. The mimosas are generally from
sixteen to twenty feet high, and, having no tap-root, they are
easily overturned by the tusks of the elephants, which are driven
like crowbars beneath the roots, and used as levers, in which
rough labour they are frequently broken. Upon the overthrow of a
tree, the elephants eat the roots and leaves, and strip the bark
from the branches by grasping them with their rough trunks.
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