The elephant has, besides the tusks, only grinders, twenty to twenty-three on each side of the jaw. The milk grinders, four in number, one in each side of either jaw, are completed soon after birth, and are said to cut in about eight or ten days. The tusks may be 8 or 10 feet long, or only as many inches. They may weigh 325 lbs. the pair, or they may not reach as many ounces. In rare instances a considerable portion of the tusk is found to have been injured by a musket ball, the iron or leaden bullet being enclosed in it. Two instances, if not more, have occurred in which these bullets were of gold, showing that the shot was fired by royal hands, for it is the reputed custom among Eastern potentates to use gold or silver bullets in their sports. One of these golden bullets is stated to have been cut through by a combmaker in dividing a tusk. The portion of the tusk thus injured is generally useless for any ornamental purpose for many inches each way around the ball ; but cases have occurred in which a ball, and even a spear-head, has entered at the thin part near the skull of the animal, and become embedded without injury to the external surface.
The elephant has been discovered fossil in the strata of the Nerbadda and in Burma. Amongst the remarkable remains brought from the Siwalik Hills in Northern India by Captain Cantley and Dr. Falconer, were the remains of several species of the genus Elephas and other proboscidean animals. This fossil fauna, is composed of repre sentative types of mammalia of all geological ages, from the oldest of the tertim7 periods down to the most modern, and of all the geographical divisions of the old continent, grouped together into one comprehensive assemblage. Among the forms contained in it, there are, of the Pachydermata, several species of mastodon, elephant, hippopo tamus,rhinoceros, anoplotherium, and three species of equus ; of the Ruminantia, the colossal genus sivatherium, which is peculiar t,o India, with species of camelus, bos, cervus, and antelope ; of the Carnivora, species of most of the great types, together with several undescribed genera ; of the Rodentia and Quadrunaana, several species ; of the Reptilia, a gigantic tortoise (colossochelys), with species of emys and trionyx, and several forms of garials and other crocodiles. To these
may be added the remains of struthiones and other birds, and also fishes, crustacea, and mollusca. The genus Elephas, in the collection which has been desposited in the British Museum, includes six species or varieties, viz. : E. planifrons, distinguished by the flatness of the forehead and the intermediate character of its molar teeth.
E. namadicus, with a great development of the cranium, and teeth closely allied to those of the Indian species.
E. hysudricus, with a turban-like vortex of the skull and teeth, whose structure approaches that of the African elephant.
E. Ganesa is the most remarkable of the Siwalik species. A skull exists, with remains of the other species, in the British Museum. The total length of the cranium and tusks is 14 feet ; length of the skull, 4 feet 2 inches ; width of the muzzle, 2 feet ; length of the tusks, 10 feet; circumference of the tusk at the base, 26 inches. The other two species A113 limited E. insignis and E. bombifrons. Ileaides these, the Bengal Asiatic Society's Nfuseuni had one called E, Cliftii. — Owen's British Fossils; Falconer and Cawley, Fauna Antigua Sivalensis ; Elphinstone; Crawfard, Embassy; Beng. As. S'oc. Cat.; Smith's Nepal; Yule, Embassy ; Yule, Cathay ; Gosse, Nat. Ilist.; Tennant's Sketches; Bikmore, Trar. ; 1Vallace, Archip. ; Aide, ..11 emoire ; Studies, pp. 24-26 ; Williams' Story of Na/o, p. 195.