Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-10-31
AN IVORY FAMINE.
The Supply of Elephants Likely to Be Ex-
hausted Before Long.

In a recent number of the London Iron
monger there appeared the following:
among the produce for which the demand
has overtaken and will probably outstrip
the supply in regularly increasing ratio
ivory Is conspicuous example. Some
where about forty years ago the 'quarries
of mammoth or prehistoric ivory imbedded
IN the ancient icebergs or frozen soil of
Siberia and elsewhere In the far north be-
gan to show signs of exhaustion. Though
because of its deafness this material was
never used for the best ivory handles it
found sale in Sheffield and indirectly was
of greater benefit, as it served for some in
dustrial purposes in other towns and there
fore kept down the price of African and
Egyptian imports. When there was a
marked diminution in the shipments of the
arctic fossil tusks and teeth prices in the
ivory market naturally advanced by leaps
and bounds all round, and though there
have been occasional fluctuations, the low
est ebb has never appropriated to the rates
of, say, 1850. Indeed on the whole, every
rise has been more or less permanent, sub
sequent falls rarely touching the antece-
dent low figure. The latest boom bids
fair not merely to follow this rule. but to
accentuate it. 1t is more than likely to
mark the commencement of period when
rates will advance by two steps for every
step they fall.
''Concurrently with the prospects of
scarcity the growth of luxury naturally
leads to an increasing use of ivory for new
purposes and additional demands for the
manufacturers with which it is already
identified, for it is a substance of which
the beauty and intrinsic qualities fully
justify popular and artistic favor There
are some statistics of necessity more in
genious than reliable and | can not pre-
tend to say whether the gentlemen are
more than plausible theorists who respec-
lively calculate that at least 10000
elephants must be annually slaughtered
for their tusks' and that for pianoforte
keys alone 90, 900 pairs of tusks are con-
sumed yearly. When we remember that
the calves are not produced quickly and
that as the natives find agriculture more
profitable the occasional raids on their
crops will make them kill off all the
elephants, whether tusker,s or not, that
they can circumvent, pessimistic views as
to future ivory supplies are excusable, even
IT we look upon the above figures as more
like the returns for income tax or com
pensation than like those of railway traffic.
Taking it for argument sake as apparent
that % the general demand for ivory is
gradually increasing: o. the sources OF
known supply are diminishing; (3) the
prospect of new markets is predetermined
the question is, what is the outlook for
the Sheffield trades, particularly cutlery
Fortunately we are not in the predicament
of the billiard-ball turner's, who declare
they have not as yet found even passable
substitute for ivory Ivory-cutters may
suffer but In course of time circumstances
will adjust themselves for the cutters.
Writing now as a comparative outsider, it
seems pity that the leading houses should
so often be ready to sacrifice the profits on
well bought stock which ought to be the
reward of their own foresight. Anyhow
looking to the future rather than the i'm
mediate present, high prices of materia
will bring their own counterbalance
Some of the public will always have the
| best ivory. regardless of price