Account of an elephant's tusk, in which the iron head of a spear was found imbedded. By Mr. Charles Combe, of Exeter College, Oxford. In a Letter to the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. K. B. P. R. S

Abstract

This tusk, which weighed fifty pounds, and measured about six feet in length, is supposed to have been imported from Africa, and was purchased at Liverpool by a manufacturer of Birmingham. On shaking it, a rattling noise was heard near the middle part, which, on cutting the tooth transversely, was found to be occasioned by an iron spear-head, about six inches and a half long, which lay in the longitudinal direction of the tooth, with the point foremost, and was considerably corroded. It is conjectured that the spear had entered at the basis of the trunk, between the interior angle of the eye and the proboscis, the cavity of the tusk being placed immediately beneath this part.