The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1874-12-18
eMisreRaneons.
"rHEEL=PHAgr coUaTRY."
Something to Co2frm the Truthful STAT
Ilents OF the Mariner Sinbsd.

! n1ents Of the Mariner S;nbsd.
| : Somewhere il the marvellous warm
! wl,.-h Sinbad the sailor cOnCriveG - -niil
/ for tiIa benefit of the all-puis-ant liza
roun AIraschid. and Giafir, his viz:er, is
/ an account of the burial place of the
/ elephants. Sinbad, surrounded by the
| monstrous brutes. has scaled tree in
| which lie was besieged for seven days
and seven nights. On the eighth day,
| an old bull, the rogue" of the herd,
renis the tree up by its roots, and Sinbad
/ falling headlong TO the ground, judges ii
| the safest course to feign death. The
elephant, disdaining to wreak its revenge
upon a lifeless enemy, picks the old sail
or up, and quietly carries him to the
great burial-p place of the tribe-a hig h
hill, some miles in circuit. surrounded
by impenetrable forests and thickly GOV
cred with the bones and tusks of genera
ton after generation of ''uhe brute which
bears between its eyes the serpent for a
hand" Sinbad, with commendable prII-
dence, continues to counterfeit death till
not an elephant is Ia sight; and then,
with an alacrity equally cOmmendabie,
loads a raft with picked tusks, makes his
way with them to Bagdad, and so finds
himself rich Ilan. Modern research
has gone far to rehabilitate the credit of
Sinbad the sailor We know that the
long narrative of his seven voyages is no
idle tale, but that it embedies the genuine
tradition of old navisatOrs, such as Han
ma, and that its main facts are substan-
TALLY accurate. The valley of the dia-
monds actually exists in Ceylon; the
great rukh once built its nest in NADIA
gascar, and tapped its monstrouS wings
to and fro between the island and the
mainland; and there is good ground to
believe that the tale of the great burial
place of the elephant race is no mere IA
bic, but that high upon the table-tand
of Central Africa, on the further side of
Tanganyika, ivory is as plentiful as in
the fossil beds of Siberia, whence are
dug up the huge mammoth tusks that
furnish nine-tenthS of the raw material
operated upon by our London ivory
turner's. Indeed it would almost seem
as if the energy Of the Zanzibar mer-
chants had at length found way to Sin
bad's charmed hill, for, within the last
year, the importation of ivory has dOub-
led; or does each pair OF tusllS that finds
its way to England represent Il Siaugh
tered elephant, aui Is IL war of eXterlni-
nation being waged. the ultimate effect
of which must be to render the huge
brute as extinct aS the dinOris itself!
The latter. we fear, is tie true answer,
TIE elephant, like the whale, i dying
out. In India he is almost as rare as the
red deer in England. The hunter has
driven him further and further inland.
Unless something be done to protect him,
he will, before long, become, upon the
mann Continent, ut any rate, altogether
extinct. and Sahib will have to import
his elephants from Birmah and CeyiOn.
much as we, in England, import Our
horses from Ireland, and our foxes from
any country that will send them to Us
in sufficient numbers, and sufficient size
and strength. In Africa, il is true, the
evil Is not yet past remedy. Over the
vast table-lan oftliat unknown cOnti-
nent the elephant still roaIns in countless
droves. and still holds, III uldjsputed
possession, vast tracts TO which rum and
glass beads, cast-iron muSketS and clay
pipes, printed calico and coarse gunpOw-
der have never yet found their way. The
respite, however, will probable he but
brief. Almost daily, caravans start from
the Zanzibar coast to the interior, carry
ing with them all that the native heart
needs TO make it glad and willing to
take payment in ivory for all that they
have to offer. For ten or a dozen large
tuskS the African chief can dress his
wives out in beads and striped calico,
furnish himself and ministers with rum
and gunpowder, and can so afford to
wait patiently till next years hunting
season commences The danger which
the chase involves is exaggerated. The
elephant is dangerous beast 10 meet
face to face, but he is easily circumvent-
ed by craft. He can be shot with pOis-
oned arrows; lie can be frightened by
midnight fires and driven into pitfalls;
or, if the hunter has the requisite nerve
and courage. he can be followed and ham
strung. And so the butchery goes on.
Year by year Zanzibar sends inland
larger number of bales, and year by
year larger number of tuSks is carried
down to the coast. We may regret the
idle waste, but we are powerless to stop
it. Nor is it, after all, easy TO convince
a native chief that it is his duty to allow
the elephant to multiply in peace. We,
lICit lil I8il<4ietilu. tilt up Oui
coal and leaving posterity to take care
of itself, aud pay its own national debt;
and We can hardly expect the woody
headed African TO display Il virtue of
which we ourselves are ignorant. What
is it TO him II. in II century or So the ele-
phant be altogether extinct, 30 long as
in the interval he is able To drink RUIZ
and TO dress out his ebony charmer in
gaudy yellow and red!
But. after all, rapidly extinct as the
brute is becoming, it is yet certain that
we shall have supplied his place long be-
fore we begin To feel ms loss. The tram
way will supplant the elephant in India
as surely as the train has suppianted the
stage-coach in England; and science
will discover some material fully a. elias
tic a. ivory and equally capable of doing
service in the shape Of Il biiiiard-ball-
the one and only article Of modern lux
nry for which, at present. ivory Is absO-
lutely Indispensable Indeed, it i not
improbable that, long before the ele-
phant is entirely extinct. science might
have taught us to fuse glass - as to iII-
part to it all the elasticity of ivOry-ex-
actly as it has already taugilt us to sup
ply the place of the bamboo with cast
iron pillars and pipes, aud that OF the
sponge with fibrous India rubber Inn
don Telegraph.