The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-01-16
THE PRESS.
OUR IVORY SUPPLY.
1t is at the Bottom Of the Slave
Trade in Africa.
PAU Mall Gazette.

Il has beer lgcc5tcd by recent writer
hat l3e cX;r;ctioa # the African ele-
phant would achieve the suppression of
he African slave trade, for if there We're
no ivory To carry 10 the coast the Arabs
would have no occasion to maintain that
fell institution in its foulest form. On
the same lines we have heard it argued
that the ultimate patrons of African
slavery are those men among us whose
amusement depends upon the perfection
Of the sphere wrought out of the choicest
part of the elephants tooth, and those
ladies whose aesthetic taste would be Of
Tended with other than the soft, creamy,
delicately grained surface for their toilet
requisites, which no product but ivory
can give.
Many will regard this long chain of
responsibility as the mere fantastic Gre
alton of a philanthropic enthusiast, and
certainly the abolition of the slave trade
will be a slow process if it depends upon
the establishment of an anti-ivory using
league in the boudoirs and dining rooms
of Mayfair or the billiard saloons of the
Strand. The prospect that the problem
will be solved by the extinction of the
great pachyderm is also remote. The
yearly destruction Of elephants is enor-
NOUS, and obviously there is limit to
the supply, but it promises to hold out
Tor long time vet. Occasionally times
of scarcity have been experienced, as,
for instance, during the recent blockade
of the East African coast by Germany,
but the shipment to Europe continues
with a remarkable regularity.
The perennial talk of an ivory famine
has as yet come to nothing, rise in
price being sufficient to stimulate the
supply and to some extent contract the
demand. Those in the trade will tell
you that magnificent tusks are now rare,
but of medium size there is comparative
abundance. How long that will last it
is impossible to say, but as Africa is
opened up the elephants bounds will be
circumscribed, and some fine day the
last wild animal of the species will re-
ceive his quietus. Fifty years is the
period which one authority in the trade
ventures upon for the practical drying
up of the ivory supply.
We obtain a certain proportion of our
supplies of ivory from Asia, but the bulk
and the best comes from Africa. In
deed, great part of what is nominally
East Indian is really African, for it is
sent from Zanzibar and Mozambique to
Bombay, and such parts as are not re-
quired for bangles and carved work are
shipped to England. More or less comes
from Burmah, Siam, Cochin China, Cey-
lon, Sumatra and Java, the Siamese be-
ing the best of the Asiatic, which is apt
to discolor. The African is shipped
from Senegambia, Guinea, the Congo,
Benguela and other places on the west
coast; Zanzibar, Mozambique and Sofala
on the east; Cape town on the south,
and from Tunis, Tripoli, Alexandria and
Cairo, being brought down from the in
terror in caravans. London is the great
market for ivory, and buyers both for
home and abroad attend the four series
Of sales held at the London docks.
Liverpool, through its direct trading
connection with the west coast, receives
certain amount of ivory and has
series of minor sales. and Antwerp is
now trying to cut into the trade, as an
outcome of the Belgian efforts in the
Congo Free State. At the last series of
sales held in London only 70 tons were
offered, but the quantities usually range
from 100 to 1870 tons. The last auctions
in Liverpool disposed Of 10 tons, and
about 81 tons were offered at Antwerp.
Last year the total imports of ivory into
this country weighed 11,757 hundred
weight. This would mean at least 60, 900
tusks, and the destruction of 10000 ele-
plants for this market alone. France,
Germany and America share in these
supplies, but they also obtain ivory di-
rect, more especially Germany