tzS THE MAMMALS OF ETHIOPIAN AFRICA 



Elephants feed and travel at night and in the early morning, passing most of 

 the day in sleep, when, where possible, they take their stand in the shade of trees. 

 While they sleep, their bodies sway from side to side, and their tails and ears are 

 in motion to drive away flies and other insects. In hot weather they drink nightly, 

 but in the cool season not infrequently go for two or three nights without water. 

 Their powers of vision are anything but good, as they seem unable to distinguish 

 a man from a tree at over fifty yards, and their hearing is not very keen ; these 

 deficiencies being amply compensated by the extraordinary delicacy of their sense 

 of smell. They can consequently be approached only up-wind, the scent of the 

 smallest infant being sufficient to put an entire herd to flight. 



As a rule, elephants associate in small parties, which comprise the members of 

 a single family, in the shape of females, young males, and calves. The old bulls are 

 either solitary or go about in twos or threes, although they rejoin their fellows 

 when the herds migrate in search of food. On such occasions each herd may 

 include from ten to a hundred or more head. 



The African elephant affords at the present day the main supply of ivory, 

 the amount received from India being comparatively small. The natural inference 

 would be that as the numbers of their species are reduced, the price of ivory would 

 continue to appreciate in a regularly increasing ratio. As a matter of fact 

 this is not the case, as is illustrated by the following summary of the fluctuation 

 in the prices of various kinds of African and Indian ivory between 1870 and 1910. 

 A set of charts published by a London firm of ivory-brokers shows, for example, 

 an alternating series of maxima and minima in prices, although in some cases 

 there is a variation of a year or two in the maxima of the different descriptions, 

 and the oscillations, as might have been expected, are greatest in the case of 

 " billiard-ball pieces," the most valuable of all. In 1870 ivory of every description 

 was cheap, " hard Egyptian," the least valuable of all, selling at £29 per cwt., 

 while West African realised £35, " soft Indian " £40, and billiard-ball pieces £50. 

 In some instances there was a fall during the next two years, when hard Egyptian 

 touched £25 ; but between 1873 and 1875 occurred the first of three marked 

 maxima, when hard Egyptian reached £50, West African £66, and soft Indian 

 £68 per cwt. The rise did not affect billiard-ball pieces till 1881, in which year 

 the price mounted to £90. The closure of the Egyptian Sudan during the second 

 half of the eighties resulted in a second and still more marked maximum in 1889 

 in some descriptions, and in 1890 in others. Hard Egyptian, for instance, touched 

 £50, West African £68, soft Indian £82 (in a few sales £88), and billiard-ball 

 pieces £105, or occasionally rather more. After 1890 there occurred a big fall, 

 lasting (except in the case of billiard-ball pieces, which had a rise in 1895 nearly 

 equal to that of 1890), with a minor rise in 1899 or 1900, till the close of 1906, 

 when there occurred the third and biggest maximum of all. During the fall in 

 the nineties, which culminated in 1895 and 1896, prices sank nearly to, or even 

 below, the 1870 level. In the great ivory-famine lasting from the end of 1906 to 

 the earl}' part of 1908 — the reason for which is not very apparent — hard Egyptian 

 touched £60, West African £80, soft Indian £86, while billiard-ball pieces generally 

 sold at from £155 to £160, and even touched the enormous price of £180 per cwt. 

 for what are known in the trade as "ball-centres." Since the early part of 1908 



