The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1886-11-26
THE LAND OF IVORY.

If an expert ivOry-dealer had examin-
| ed the tusks of Jumbo he could nave
! told very nearly where that famous ami
I nal lived before he was removed from
his native jungle. Humidity and heat
improve the quality of ivory The fur
Their an elephant lives from the equator
and the higher and dryer his habitat,
the less valuable his tusks. East Afri-
:an tusks are not so large, hard, or fine
grained rs those from the central and
western regions, and consequently they
sell cheaper in the market. There is no
doubt that the Congo basin. now becom-
ing accessible, will for years to come be
the source of the worlds largest and
finest supply of ivory.
Statistics of the ivory trade since 1879
show that siXty-fivc thousand African
elephants are slaughtered annually to
, supply the civilized markets. While it
is certain that the African elephant is
destined, like the American bison, to
determination. the day when he will
disappear forever from his native haunts
will doubtless be far removed. He still
roams in prodigious numbers over vast
areas in inner Africa. The relentless
hunter, however. has driven him from
the coast regions The increased cost
of reaching the elephant hunting
grounds has reduced by one-half the
ivory exports of Cape Colony and the
Portuguese west coast settlements. The
exports are decreasing at all but two
points of shipment. Arab hunters pene-
trating far INLAND from Zanzibar and
the enterprise of the United African
company on the Niger and Bcnuc rivers
are swelling the volume of exports from
those regions, while ut all other points
it is diminishing
SANKEY'S assertion two years ago
that ivory was so abundant in the Congo
basin that it could be bought for almost
nothing was received with incrcdulity.
His statement, however, has recently
been corroborated by a number of relia-
bic travellers. Mr.. Grenfell says that on
the Kassal ailluent, where two years
ago Wissmann's party killed seven ele-
plants in rs many minutes, he recently
saw a Portuguese trader who had just
bought three hundred tusks, and that
tusks worth Sl5 in London could be pro-
cured for two necklaces of glass beads.
Two commercial houses, one Dutch and
the other French, have recently estab-
lished agents at Stanley pool. One of
these agents in a single day bought
nearly five tons of ivory, worth $4,000,
at price so small that Sir Francis dc
Winton, late governor of Congo. said he
would not reveal the cost, because ''you
would all start off to Congo to become
ivory traders"
The steamer Stanley is now on the
Kassai river investigating the prospects
Wissmann. Kund, Wolff, and others
have pictured in glowing terms. Sir
Francis de Wmton asserts that the ma
tives throughout the Congo basin have
been collecting ivory for long time.
and that it will take years even partial
ly to clear the country of its dead ivory
without touching the living product,
When the Congo railroad Is built the
Free State will depend for its CONNER
cial prosperity upon this trade alone,
until the india rubber and other posi-
BILE industries of the country have been
developed.
These countless herds of elephants
that roam over ali the well watered
parts of inner Africa, from the Sahara
desert to Cape Colony, will furnish for
years to come the most important item
among the commodities that the CONT
nent gives to commerce. Their ivory
also is regarded by ali the European
colonies in their feeble beginnings as
the most desirable product of the country.
N. Y. San.
GasIight and Baidness.