ELEPHANT TUSKS 405 



animal, which they regarded as a great privilege. They 

 had dealings in ivory with the Portuguese, and tusks were 

 so plentiful along the coast that they were used as palisades 

 to enclose gardens, so that they may be said to have had 

 ivory fences.* 



In his exploration of the region of the Lower Ubanja, M. 

 Gerard gained the impression that the natives of this terri- 

 tory were ignorant of the value of ivory. That the material 

 was present in considerable quantity, however, was shown 

 by the view of a number of large tusks planted upright and 

 looked upon as attributes of the power of the chief, f The 

 principal units of value in the Upper Congo are slaves and 

 elephant's tusks, a slave being generally regarded as equal- 

 ling a tusk in value. J 



Two very fine tusks were received in Antwerp from the 

 Congo region in 1896, the finest in all respects that had as 

 yet been brought thither. One of them measured 2 m. 60 

 cm. in length, while the other was slightly longer — namely, 

 2 m. 75 cm., or 8 ft. 6 in. and 9 ft. respectively. The weight 

 of each is given as 78 kilograms, or about 171 J pounds.** 

 These considerably exceed in size the finest pair preserved 

 in the Musee du Congo, which measure respectively 2.43 

 and 2.45 cm., or a small fraction over and under 8 ft.§ 



A pair of tusks of exceptional size and weight, each 9 ft. 

 long and weighing together 330 pounds, were secured by 

 Sir Ralph Moore from the French Territory of the Gold 

 Coast, West Africa, where he occupied the place of High 

 Commissioner of the British Government. He exhibited 



* Tavernier, "Receuil de plusieures relations," Paris, 1702, p. 312. 



t"La Belgique Coloniale," Vol. I, p. 435; 1895-6. 



tRidgeway, "The Origin of Metallic Currency and Weight Standards," Cambridge, 

 1892, p. 42. 



**"La Belgique Coloniale," 2d Annee (1890), p. 35. 



§Dr. H. Schouteden, "L'elephant nain du Coixgo," in Revue Zoologique Africaine, Vol, 

 I, Fasc. 2, p. 222, August 31, 1911. 



