The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-07-05
How 65,oo6 elephants are killed every year for their tusks.

Copyright. 1908, by Frank G. carpenter.)
 

Copyright, 1908 by Frank G. Carpenter.)
 Zanzibar ~ IXTY-FIvE THOUSAND elephants
 were killed in Africa last year. and o more than a million and a half pounds of ivory were taken from them and shipped off to Europe Of this fully one-third came from Zanzibar, another third was from Portuguese East and West Africa, and a large part of the balance was from the valley of the Congo. Cape Colony furnished 100000 pounds, Egypt 500000 pounds and large part came from the Niger territories and Lagos. During the past six months I have been travelling through the lands of ivory and elephants. i saw tusks for sale in the Egyptian Su- dan At Mombasa l was shown s50.o0O worth of ivory in one pile, and during my travels through Uganda and German East Africa, passed many long lines of porters carrying elephants tusks on their heads or tied to long poles, which rested on their shoulders.
 A Great Ivory Market.
 Zanzibar has for years been one of the chief ivory markets of the world. There are companies here which have their buy CTS and traders securing German and British East Africa, as well as the Portu- guese possessions, farther south. These men take beads, cotton and other mer- ohandise to trade with the natives, and when they have accumulated cargo they send it on the heads of porters down 10 the seacoast Much is now coming 10 Lake Victoria and over the Uganda rail road to Mombasa- great 6eal goes to Tabora in the center of German East Africa and thence on east to Bogomoye on the coast opposite Zanzibar, while ether caravans bring ivory to Mogroro
 
 es Salaam
 There are herds of elephants about the slopes of Mount I<ilimanjaro, and the hunting goes on in the forests of the great Rift valley. In British East Africa it costs s250 for the right to shoot elephants and hunter dares not kill more than two during the season. It is against the law to kill the baby elephants or COW ele- phants there, and the same regulations rrevail in Uganda. In the British Sudan a license is required to shoot any kind of big game and this is also true of Brit ish Central Africa. In German East Af- rica hunters are charged few rupees for their elephant shooting licenses, but they must pay a royalty to the government on all the ivory they get As 1t is there is considerable profit. in the business, and in the German colonies fairly good hun ter often makes big money. A single elephant may give tusks worth thousand dollars and upward, and an old bull may produce 300 or 400 pounds of the choicest ivory.
 African Ivory the Best.
 This African ivory brings the highest prices in the markets. 1t is superior 70 any other in the size of the tusks have seen some which are nine feet long, and there are some which weigh as much as 200 pounds each. The average weight of a tusk is much less than this, and one of 100 pounds Is quite valuable. In India the average tusls does not weigh 50 pounds but that of the African elephant is much heavier Many of the tusks are broken when they are brought into the rnsrket The elephants use them for blowing up roots and tearing down trees, and also for fighting their enemies. The average tusk is strong and elastic; but it can be broken and the ends are sometimes snapped off Ivory tusks are always sold by weight and the traders tell ne that in buying them of the natives they have to be care full to see that pieces of iron or bits of stone have not been driven into the hol- lows of the horns to make them weigh more.
 Pulling an Elephants Tooth.
 Many of you have been in the hands of a dentist and have seen how he almost breaks your jaw in pulling molar with long root. The tusks are really elephants teeth, and it is difficult to get them out of dead elephant. They are fitted into a bony socket, and the roots go almost up to the eyes. A tusk feet long may have two feet of it's tusk imbedded in the skull, and if 1t is taken away at once the