ELEPHANT HUNTING, ETC. 211 



River large herds remain practically untouched. The 

 fact that 514,085 pounds of ivory was exported in 1912, 

 valued at $1,172,581, as against 497,656 pounds in 1911, 

 with a value of $1,096,597, shows how large must be the 

 number of elephants in this valuable Belgian colony.* 



The elephants of Togoland (German West Africa) are 

 threatened with extermination, there being no protective 

 laws to control indiscriminate slaughter; indeed, so reck- 

 less and improvident are the native hunters that they do 

 not even spare the young elephants, and now and then tiny 

 tusks from a baby elephant are brought to the merchants. 

 Hence the ivory exports are dwindling down, and were it 

 not for the fact that the good price the material commands 

 in Lome attracts some ivory from the Gold Coast, the 

 amount exported would be still smaller. The figures for 

 1912 show exports of but 2,400 kilos, and in 1911 the returns 

 were 2,150 kilos. f 



In each of the West African colonies, including Nigeria, 

 elephants are protected by special laws which prohibit the 

 killing of young animals and of female elephants. A $50 

 license only serves to permit the killing of one or at most 

 of two elephants during the year for which it is issued. t 



The strict regulations in regard to the hunting of "big 

 game" in the Transvaal** would, of course, serve to protect 

 elephants from unlawful hunting, should any still be left 

 in that region, but this does not seem to be the case. That 

 they formerly ranged through the country is of course a 

 well-known fact that finds confirmation in the names given 



*Vice-Consul General Harry A. McBride of Boma, "Development of Belgian Kongo," 

 Daily Consular and Trade Reports, April 16, 1914, p. 280. 



fDiplomatic and Consular Reports No. 5226, Annual Series: Germany, Report on the 

 Trade and Agriculture of Togoland (German West Africa), London, 1913, p. 9. 



JCommunicated by U. S. Consul N. J. Yerby, of Sierra Leone, Africa. 



**See Handbook of the Game and Fish Preservation Laws of the Transvaal Province, 

 1912, Pretoria, 1912, 50 pp., map and two "Addenda" of 15 pp. and 8 pp. respectively. 



