The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1875-01-07
The Elephant Country,
From the London Telegraph

iot inc peheuV ei the all pulSsant HarOun
Alraschid, and Gisffir, his vizier, is an ac-
count of the burial place of the elephants
Slnbad, surrounded by the monstrous
hrutes, has scaled ii tree, in which he is be-
sleged for seven days and seven nights.
On the eighth day, an old bull, the rogue"
of the herd, rends the tree up by its roots.
and Sinbad, falling hcadlong to the ground.
Judges 1t Is the safest course to feign death.
The elephant, disdaining to wreak its rage
upon hieless enemy, picks the old sailor,
UP, and quietly carries him to the great
burial place of the tribe-a high hill some
miles in circuit, surrounded by impentrable
forests and thickly covered with the bones
and tusls Of generation after generation of
''the brute which bears between its eyes
the serpent for hand ''Sinbad, with
commendable prudence, continues to coun-
tericit death til not an elephant is in sight;
and then, with an alacrity equally com
memdable, loads raft with picked tusks,
makes his way with them to Bagdad, and
so finds himself a rich man Modern re-
search has gone far to rehabilitate the
credit Of Sinbad the sailor. We know
that the long narrative of his seven voyages
is no idle fairy tale, but that it embodies
the genuine tradition of old navigators,
such as Hanno, and that its main facts are
substantially accurate. The valley of the
diamond actually exists in Ceylon the
great rukh once built its nest in Madagas-
car, and tapped its monstrous wings to and
fro between the island and the mainland,
and there is good ground to believe that
their tale of the great burial place Of the
elephant race is no mere fable, but that high
upon the table land of Central Africa, on
the farthest side of Nanganyika, ivory is
us plentiful as the fossil beds of the Siberia,
whence are dug up the huge mammoth
tusls that furnished 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 Il way to Sin
bads charmed hill, for, within the last
year, the Importation of ivory has doubled;
or does each pair of tusks that finds its way
to England represent a slaughtered ele-
ph;nt. and is war Of determination being
wa e |, the ultimate effect of which must
be to render the huge brute as extinct as
tie dinorniS Itself.
The latter, we fear, is the true answer.
The elephant, like the whale is diving out
In India he is becoming almost as rare as
is thu red deer in England. The hunters
have driven him farther and farther inland;
unless something be done to protect him,
lie WI. before long become, upon the main
continent, at any rate, altogether extinct,
and Sahib will have to import his elephants
from BiEmad and Ceylon, much as we III
England import our horses from Ireland,
and our foxes from any country that will
send them TO us in sufficient number and
Of sufficient size and strength. In Africa,
it is true, the evil is not yet past remedy
Over the vast table lands of that unknown
continent the elephant still roves in count
less droves, and still holds In undiaputed
possession vast tracts to which rum and
glass beads. cast iron muskets and clay
pipes, printed calico and coarse gun powder,
have not yet found their way. The re-
spite, however, will probably be but brief.
Almost daily caravans start from the Zanzi-
bar coast to the interior, carrying with
them all 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 his ministers
with rum and gun powder, and can SO af-
ford to wait patiently until next years
hunting season commences. The danger
which the chase involves is exaggerated.
The elephant is dangerous beast to meet
face to face. bat he is easily circumvented
by craft He can be shot with poisoned
arrows he can be frightened by midnight
fires and driven into pitfalls or, if the
hunter have the requisite nerve and courage,
he can be followed and hamstrung. And
so the butchery goes on. Year by year
Zanzibar sends inland large number Of
bales, and year by year large number of
tusks is carried down to the coast. We
may regret the idle waste, but we are
powerless to stop it. Now is it, after all,
easy to convince a native chief that 1t is
his duty to allow the elephant to multiply
in peace. We here in England are burn
ing up our coal, and leaving posterity to
take care Of itself and pay its own national
debt and we can hardly expect the Wooliy
headed African to display a virtue ofwhich
we ourselves are ignorant. What 1t is to
him if in century or SO the elephant be
altogether extinct, so long as in the inter
val he is able to drink rum and to dress
out his ebony charmer in gaudy yellow
and red
But, after all, rapidly extinct as the
great brute is becoming, 1t Is yet certain
that we shall have supplied his place long
before we begin to feel his loss. The tram
way will supplant the elephant in India as
surely as the train has supplanted the stage
coacb in Enoland and science will discover
some material fully as elastic as ivory, and
equally capable Of doing service in the shape
of a billiard ball-the one and only article
of modern luxury for which at present
ivory is absolutely Indispensable. Indeed,
:. :. not unavoidable that long before the