ANIMALS. 48,5 



Eurojie, and enjoy the fruits of their labours; but they resolved, 

 one day before they went, to have a last chase, by way of amuse, 

 ment : they nnet with their game, and began their attack in the 

 usual manner : but, unfortunately, one of their horses falling, 

 happened to fling his rider ; the enraged elephant instantly seized 



(land, the increase of comforts and luxuries amongst the middle classes of 

 Booiety, and the love of tasteful ornament which has descended from tlic 

 [j;dace to the cottage (one satisfactory symptom of intellectual advancement) 

 has probably increased the consumption of ivory in smaller articles. Wc 

 understand that at Dieppe there are at present eleven flourishing ■mauufac. 

 tories of articles in ivory, from wliieh various specimens of art, from the 

 commonest piece of turnery to the most elaborate carving, are dispersed 

 Hiroughoat the continent. Much is employed for crucifixes, and other 

 appendages of Roman Catholic worship. In our own country the demand 

 for elephants' teeth, to be employed in the manufacture of musical instru- 

 ments, plates for miniatures, boxes, chess-men, billiard-balls, mathematical 

 rules, and small pieces of carving, is much more considerable than might 

 occur to a superficial observation. In 1827, the Customs upon elephants' 

 teeth, the duty being 20* per cwt., amounted to ^68,257, exhibiting an im- 

 portation of 3lvl,784 lbs. In eleven years, from 1788 to 1798, 18,911 cwt. of 

 ivory was imported, which shows an average annual importation of 192,570 

 lbs. The consumption, therefore, is either increased in Great Britain, or, 

 fiom our possession of the colony of the Cape of Good Hope, we are enabled 

 to supply the demands of foreign nations. 



The average weight of an elephant's tusk is about 60 lbs. To have pro- 

 duced, therefore, 364,781 lbs. of ivory, the import of 1827, 6030 tu«ks must 

 have been procured. This fact assumes the annual slaughter of at least 3040 

 elephants. But the real havoc is much greater. Mr Biu-chell, in liis travels 

 in Africa, met with some elephant hunters, who had shot twelve elephants, 

 which, hoive>er, produced no more than two hvnidreil pounds ^^■eight of 

 ivory, as all the animals, excepting one, happened to be females. If any thing 

 like the same ill-luck, or want of skiU, attended all the African elephant 

 hunters, upwards of forty thousand of these animals ivould be annually slain 

 to supply oiu- demand for ivory baubles. But this circiunstance is, of course, 

 an extraordinary one ; and we (jnly mention it to show the necessary waste 

 of elephant life, in the supply of oiu' commercial wants. 



There is a peculiarity in the commerce of elephants' teeth which forcibly 

 arrests tlie imagination. Ivory is not an article of paramount necessity. 

 The fine marbles would answer the purposes of statuary better, even if tbi. 

 ancient art of sculpture in ivory were restored ; and the harder woods are 

 quite as useful in the manufacture of furnitiu-e. It is required only lor 

 ornaments which are by no means suited to every taste ; for modern Euro- 

 peans have not a passion for ivory, as the Romans are said, by M. de Caylus, 

 to have had. And yet the demand in this country, of which we hear an'i 

 see little, gives activity to whole tribes of Africans ; — makes elephant-hunu 

 ing a trade ; — exposes man to the most appalling dangers, and the severest 

 privations ;— and spreads terror amongst thousands of these unoiJ'ending 

 animals, who appear to have a natnral right, which they have enjoyed from 

 the creation, to the inuuense savannas upon m hich they pasture. 



jJs3 



