The Savannah morning news., 1903-08-30

browsing on the side of what is now
the city of Durham, on the South Afri-
can coast, but he was hunted so per-
sistently that he has entirely disap-
peared in the southern part of Africa
and is now found not nearer than 1900
miles north of Cape Town.
Polar Bears and SkunIks.
The Polar bear will not wander very
Tar from the ice oceans of the North.
The result is that his habitat is eX-
tremely narrow, though it girdles the
world in the Arctic regions.
He wanders along all the northern
coasts of the continents and the shores
of the Arctic islands. Peary has seen
him on the edge of the most northern
land yet discovered around the north
coast of Greenland.
| If we were to visit Iceland for a look
at the Polar bear we should have to
go to the north coast to see him. The
waters washing the other coasts ap-
pear to him little too warm for COM
| fort. This is natural, for the south
| coasts are under the influence of the
warmer waters of the Atlantic. and
the Polar bear cannot understand why
any one should enjoy life in such an
uncomfortably hot climate
We have the skunk all to ourselves
| in North America. He lives in Cana
da as far north as the upper part of
the Mackenzie river, and is distinctive
| ly North American animal.
He is found throughout our broad
domain, from Portland. Me, to Ore
Son, and from Florida to Los Angeles.
For some reason he seems to have a
prejudice against Nova Scotia and is
not known in Newfoundland.
The skunk is really a very respecta-
BILE beast and cannot be severely blam-
a. fnr lit hi ,1,, yt,,1.@ r.,
his enemies. Some bold eXperimenters
assert that the skunk is very good eat
| ing.
The Ostrich and His Habitat.
There are just four regions in which
the wild African ostrich is now found.
| He lives in considerable numbers In
Arabia, where he has been little hunt
ed. In Africa his most northern hab-
ltat is the Soudan and the southern
part of the Sahara from the Red Sea
| almost to the Atlantic ocean.
He does not live in the excessively
moist regions of Central Africa, but
in the drier countries between the In
dian ocean and the Nile he is found
in considerable numbers. His fourth
home in Africa is in the great dry dis
| tricts of German West Africa, from
| across the continent.
| He was long ago driven out of the
| thirst lands of Cape Colony, for hunt
| ers became too numerous for him. The
| fact that wild ostriches are always
killed to obtain their plumage has I'M
fortunately caused a great diminution
among them. and the prospect is that
| in time they will be entirely replaced
by the domesticated ostrich now living
/ m = he Ark,g s.nI, II.
| far south of any of the regions where
! the wild bird is found.
The habitat of the elder duck. whose
down is so highly valued, practically
comedies with that of the polar bear.
J 1t is found on all arctic coasts, but also
lives considerably south of the south
ern limits of the polar bear. The time
was when the elder duck girdled all
| the northern coast lines of the world
with its myriad of nests. but the bird
has been so mercilessly hunted that it
has now disappeared from thousands
of beetling cliffs along the sea where
| it was formerly known.
Probably no famous bird has a small
er habitat than the famous bird of par
adise. whose beautiful feathers are so
highly priced in the millinery trade. No
one knows why the varieties of this
beautiful bird are confined to the is
land of New Guinea and the neighbor-
| ing coasts of Australia. There are
many other islands not far away where
| the conditions would seem to be equal
ly favorable to their existence, but they
are not found among them, and if we
| should ever see a hunter of the bird of
paradise we would know that he was
native of New Guinea or the neigh
| boring mainland of Australia, or had
visited those regions.
| Everybody has heard that the cowry
shell is used as money over a wide
part of the Western Soudan. 1t came
| to be regarded as a very convenient
medium of exchange on account of its
| size and shape. But if the cowry shell
might have been picked up in bushel
baskets by any one along the African
| coasts it would, of course, have been
valueless as money. If the shell were
very easy to get so that every picka-
| ninny might accumulate large guam
titles of it, nobody would give his ivo-
~, vegetables or skins in exchange for
| it.
Shells Used as Money.
The cowry shell came to have value
in much the same way that value has
been attached to gold. 1t was regard
ed by the west Africans who saw it
| as a convenient form of money; bet
it was difficult to obtain it, AS the
article was desired it came to have
value, just as anything does which
men desire to possess.
The cowry shell is found only on the
coasts of a number of islands off tht
southwest shores of India. 1t had to
be carried thousands of miles to the
west coast of Africa, where there was
a demand for it, and so real value be-
came attached to it and it could be
used as money.
The time came, however, when on
account of the large profit derived from
the transportation of cowry shells to
West Africa that supply became great
er than the demand. Naturally the
price of cowry money was thus reduc-
ed and West Africa passed through
a financial crisis which was never
adequately reported in the newspapers
Cowry money became so cheap that
there was little temptation even to
steal it. This state of affairs put an
end to the Importation of the cowry
shells and no more were shipped until
equilibrium had been restored between
supply and demand.
This chapter in the history of cowry
money is very similar to that of silver
money in recent years when the over
supply of silver cut in two the price
of silver bullion and led to great fluc-
Only One Dollar
To Brunswick and return via Seaboard