In Wildest Africa ^ 



tusks there visible will give an approximate notion of the 

 tremendous slaughter which is being carried on. 



The price of ivory has been rising gradually, and is 

 now ten times what it was some forty years ago in the 

 Sudan, according to Brehm's statistics. In Morgen's 

 time one could buy a fifty-pound tusk in the Cameroons 

 for some stuff worth about sevenpence. In the last 

 century or two the price of ivory has risen commensurately 

 with that of all other such wares. Nowadays a sum 

 varying from ^300 to ;!^400 may be obtained for the 

 Qgg of the Great Auk, which became extinct less than 

 half a century ago : whilst a stuffed specimen of the bird 

 itself is worth at least ^1,000. What will be the price of 

 such things in years to come ! 



In the light of these remarks the reader will easily 

 understand how greatly I prize the photographs which I 

 secured of two huge old bull-elephants in friendly company 

 with a bull-giraffe, and which are here reproduced. It 

 will be difficult, if not indeed impossible, ever again to 

 photograph such mighty " tuskers " in company with 

 giraffes. In the year 1863 Brehm wrote that no true 

 picture existed of. the real African elephant in its own 

 actual haunts. The fact brought to light by these pictures 

 is both new and surprising, especially for the expert, who 

 hitherto has been inclined to believe that giraffes were 

 dwellers on the velt and accustomed to fight shy of the 

 damp forests. That they should remain in such a region 

 in company with elephants for weeks at a time was 

 something hitherto unheard of. I do not know how to 

 express my delight at being able after long hours of 



520 



