The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-01-18

valley of the Upper Nile, and in 1860 the
total value of the exported feathers of At
rican origin had risen to nearly a million
pounds sterling. 1t was the golden age
of British and Boer nimrodism, when
hunters like Capt. Baldwin could bag eight
fine cocks in one week. Sport such as
his was too good to last, and in 1876, when
Prof. Mosenthal wrote an elaborate re-
port on the feather trade, the total eX-
ports, including the products of the Syrian
and Arabian hunting grounds, had already
fallen to 100000. Four years later the
aggregate was about half a million even,
and if there has been Slight increase
during the last decade it can be explained
partly by the enlargement of the hunt
ing grounds partly by the general scarcity
of the product, and the consequent rise in
prices.
In Syria, where ostriches could once be
seen in flocks of several dozen, they have
become almost extinct; in the Soudan they
are scarcer than Mahds, and the best
hunting grounds are now those of the Up
per Orange river Eastern Abyssinia, and
the tablelands south of the Senegal. A
few herds are known to exist in South
ern Morocco and Upper Egypt, but they
can survive only by sticking to the loneli-
est deserts and running like Chicago cash
iers at the approach of an expert accoun-
ant.
This country has seen its best days.
let's try and find a little more elbow room
further west" said Daniel Boone when
his boys reported the establishment of
rancho some twenty miles below mis- hunt
ing camp and with a similar promptness
the African ostrich and it's South American
cousin flee from the advance of civiliZa-
ton. They have utterly abandoned the
tree-covered and even bush-covered por-
tons of our planet, and agree with the
hermits of the early Christian era that
true peace cannot be found in primitive
wilderness, but only in the desert-scores
of miles from any spot that could possibly
attract a permanent settler.
The RI ca or American ostrich, shares
the kicking talent of its African kinsman
| but its style of architecture is almost as
chaste as that of a crane; a graceful head,
slender bill legs without knock knees. and
a modest look that contrasts pleasantly
with the defiant stare of the cassowaJy.
It's deitetic habits, too, are more refined
and it will rarely swallow any grosser It'd
bits than 75-cent pocket knives, but its
mistrust of modern culture almost equals
that of the prose poet Thoreau. A dis
tant shout, the crack of a whip, the far
off barking of a dog, are enough to scare
it into galloping fits lasting from six to
sixteen hours, without stopping at dinner
stations. 1t cannot be permanently do
mesticated. Chicks the size of a coal
scuttle seek the hearth of a hospitable
ranchero for the sake of its warmth, but
watch the movements of the cook with
growing suspicion, and on reaching the
age of consent are very apt to follow
wild relative into the solitude of the pam
pas. On such occasions they make straight
for the next desert, though for the first
few miles they may follow a beaten road,
holding with Ruskin that the best about
our later-day civilization Is the improve
ment of facilities to get way from it.