16 
TRADE. 
fine; pomegranate does not seem to succeed. The 
boundaries of farms are often marked by the castor- 
oil bush. 
Miserable-looking camels drive the oil-press. Cattle 
do not thrive, though upon the neighbouring island of 
Pemba a small breed succeeds. Few butchers' shops 
are seen : the natives adopt the vegetable and fish 
diet, not being able to afford meat. Goats, when cas- 
trated and stall-fed, become very heavy, and their 
meat is considered a great delicacy by the Arabs. 
Trade has considerably increased at Zanzibar. The 
shipping consists chiefly of large native craft — thirty 
to forty from Bombay, Muscat, &c, and but three or 
four ships from Europe and America. The merchants 
have their Exchange, if the place they daily meet in 
may be designated by this title. Here human beings, 
money, ivory, copal, cloves, cloths, beads, rice, cowries, 
opercula, and goods from all quarters of the world, 
change hands. The largest single tusk we saw at 
Zanzibar weighed 165^ lb. ; length, 8 feet 7-| inches ; 
greatest circumference, 1 foot 11 inches — all of the 
purest blue-tinted soft ivory. It belonged to Mr 
Webb, the American consul. He had also an enor- 
mous hippopotamus tusk, nine inches greatest circum- 
ference, and turning, like the horn of a Highland ram, 
once and a half round. As the tusk increases in size, 
a corresponding rise takes place in its value per lb. 
Tortoise-shell fetched 15s. per lb.; for hippopotamus 
ivory there was then no demand in Europe. 
Several stirring events occurred while we were at 
Zanzibar. Once the Brisk got information of a slaver, 
but on sailing in search could find nothing of her. 
