90 
The variety of African ivory which approaches nearest to 
Cameroon in transparency and fineness of grain, is that 
which is imported from Angola ; it is, in fact, the kind from 
which most of the better articles in the cutlery manufacture 
are made ; and although its degree of transparency is not so 
great as that of the Cameroon, yet it is sufficiently beautiful 
in colour and fineness of grain to render it suitable for the 
best kinds of cutlery. 
The coarsest of all the African varieties of ivory is that 
which is imported from the river Gambia. In colour it is 
generally white, and its texture is, in comparison with the 
two varieties already described, as oak to box-wood ; even 
the central parts and the tips of the tusks, which, in all the 
varieties, are always the finest in texture, are not, in this 
kind, sufficiently so to render it suitable for any other than 
the commoner kinds of cutlery. I have seen large tusks of 
this kind covered on the outside with bark to the depth of a 
quarter of an inch. 
Having now described three varieties of African ivory 
which present the greatest contrast to each other, I need not 
say anything of the others, except that they are of an inter- 
mediate character with those already described, but proceed 
to the Asiatic variety. 
Zoologists have described the specific difference of the 
Asiatic and African elephants, but I am not aware that they 
have noticed the difference in the ivory produced by the two 
species. Those who are in the habit of working it can dis- 
tinguish at a glance whether the ivory is the product of 
Africa or India. 
In all the varieties of African ivory, (except one, to be 
noticed hereafter,) even in the whitest of them, there is a 
certain degree of transparency which is characteristic of it ; 
but in the Asiatic varieties, the total absence of this quality 
is equally indicative of its Hindoo origin. Indian ivory is 
