Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-04-03
9ailY eagle
THE ELEPHANTS FATE.
Tt Is Similar to That Which Has
Overtaken the Buffalo.
The Great African Pachyderm Now "But
rs Grass" and the Places That Have
Known Him VIII Soon Know
Kim No Mora"-The Work
of determination.

of determination.
At the beginning of this century, says the
ST. James Gazette, the elephant was found
plentifully upon the eastern confines and
in the southern forest belt of the Cape Col
ony. As lately as 1880 ivory hunters pur-
sued their calling in the dense bush veldt
of the Eastern Province, and still later in
Katfraria. But the Cape Government, fore
seeing the probability of the mighty beasts
extinction within a few years, proclaimed
measures of protection; and it is curious
fact that there exist at the present moment,
within the southeastern limits Of Cape Col
Dny-within sight of the Indian Ocean
more wild elephants than are to be found
for probably fifteen hundred miles inland.
In Aldo Bush, not far from Port Elizabeth,
In the knysna and Zitzikamina forests, and
upon the jungle slopes of the Winterheck
Mountains, troops of elephants yet wander
free and undisturbed, as also does the
fierce and gloomy buffalo, and that king Of
antelopes, the Koodoo Beyond the Ker,
in Kaffraria itself, where fostering protect
i've laws have not extended, the elephant is
extinct
Passing eastward through Natal, once
Astounding in but now devoid Of elephants,
we reach Zululand. In that territory be-
tween 1850 and 1875 immense numbers Of
the great pachyderm were hunted and de-
stroyed. Baldwin, DrUmmond and other
wellS1nown nimrods, besides a numerous
arrayof obscure but quite as deadly Dutch
and colonial professional hunters, have
practically wrought extinction in the -4Iu
country. North of the Zulus, in Amatonga-
land, the same state OF things exists, with
the difference that some numbers Of ele-
plants driven by the incurslve gold diggers
and prospectors Of Swaziland from their
ancient secluded h2unts in that territory,
have recently trezked south across the
Amatonga border. Here their eXtermna-
ton must soon follow. It is probable that
the country most aboundinG in the poor
remnant of elephants now south Of the
Zambesl is the unhealthy region lying east
and northeast OF the Transvaal border
much Of it known as Umzilaland. Here the
prevalence of deadly fever in the hot
months and the tse-tse 1y have alone
prevented Dutch hunters from completing
their work of destruction; but even here
the supply of elephant life is now sparse
and limited and can not long hold out. The
Orange Free State, from the treeless, open
nature of its terrain, although formerly
crowded with other game, was never a
haunt of elephants. But not so with the
TransvaaL Here in 1887 Captain Corn
wallis Harris, one of the first to explore the
beautiful but unknown wilds then held by
the fierce Moselikatze and his Matabeles,
found elephants in astounding plenty. In
one valley alone he saw wandering in peace
full seclusion hundreds of the gray beasts.
But close on the heels of Harris followed
10.
tackled and driven out Mosehkatze, turned
their attention to the extraordinary
wealth of ivory within their new
found borders. Their labors have been but
too successful, and there now remains to
the vast territories of the South African
republic pro baby not one solitary wild ele-
phant. All have vanished. North of the
Transvaal lie Matabele and Mashonalands
the country now ruled by Lodengula, son
of the dreaded Moseiikatze. So recently as
between 1871 and 1919 these lands were ten
anted by vast numbers of elephants. But,
as Mr.. f. G. Selous, the well known hunter,
tells US, it is now difficult in years hunt
ing to come across a single elephant in
these countries. Mr.. SelouS himself, the
mightleSt elephant hunter of these or any
other times, who has devoted the greatest
part of the last seventeen years TO the fierce
toll and countless dangers of ivory hunting,
and the numerous Dutch and other hunt
ers who have ravaged the country, have
much to answer for 10 this matter. But,
after all, they have been but the instru-
ments Of supply to a pitiless and never
ceasing demand.
Turning westward to Bechuanaland the
same story has TO be told. In Gordon Cum
ming's time-lS46 to IS50-Bamap gwato,
now ruled by Khama, was veldt virgin to
the hunter. Gordon Cumming himself was
one of the first to exploit it, and by him, Os-
well and Vardon, and afterward by Bald
win and others, great execution was
wrought among the elephants, even as far
to the west as Lake N'Gami. Professional
hunters have, since Gordon Cummings
day, completed absolutely the work of ex-
tirpation in these lands. In one year alone,
after the discovery of Lake n Gami QS49),
Livingstone tells US that nine hundred ele-
plants were SLAIN in the region of the Great
Lake What wealth of animal life, al
though backed by countless years of undls-
turbed freedom and repose, could with
stand the barbarous ravages of so short
sighted policy' North Bechuanaland, in
GLIDING its Zambesi borders, and the Ma
babe veldt-ouce great hunting ground
and the Lake NGami regions, are
now ali but completely denuded
of ivory. Passing yet further to
the westward, across the Kalahari,
which now shares the dearth of Bechd-
analand, we reach the countries of the
Namaquas and Damaras. Here the same
miserable history has to be recorded. Since
the time of the explorer Charles Anderson,
between 1880 and 1860, when elephants were
found IN abundance in Southwest Africa,
succeeding years have seen the profess
sional hunters pursuing without mercy or
cessation their work of slaughter; and ele-
plants may now be found no further south
than Ovampoland, where the native hatred
of the white man has alone protected them.
The ivory trade of South Africa has, with
tie decline of elephant life, decayed in like
ratio. In 1873 the value of ivory exported
through Cape Colony was eco. Az; in 1886 it
was &2150 In 1873, el7,i9 worth of ivory
was exported from Natal, IN 1885 but "a, 100
worth. Beyond these Austral-African re-
gions, where ivory is now as scarce as it
was but few years since superintendent,
the progress Of eXurpatlOu goes on apace.
Portuguese and Arab hunters have for
years been hard at work, and each season
sees the precious supply wax smaller. In
the Kilimajaro regions in East Africa, and
about Bengeweola and the other great
central lakes, elephants are no doubt still
very abundant, but each month rifles and
hunters penetrate more deeply into the
Dark Continent. Probably the Niger ter-
ritores and the httle-known interior of
-