July 1, 1902.] 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRI ULTUEIST. 
21 
CEYLON TEA ON THE CONTINENT 
OF EUROPE. 
In our opinion, no fuller nor more satis- 
factory Report has as yet been published 
from a Ceylon Tea Agent — or Planters' 
Commissioner — than that supplied for 1901, 
regarding the Continent of Kurope, by Mr. 
J. H. Renton, and which we publish on page 
25. It discloses a wonderful amount and 
variety of work, and, considering the small 
sum allotted to the Commissioner, we think 
he has done wonders. He certainly has 
not spared himself, nor adopted any one 
rough «nd ready course of getting rid of 
the Ceylon grant with a minimum of 
trouble to himself ; but in encouraging 
" demonstrations " and a variety of modes 
of advertising, and of making known the 
virtues of Ceylon tea, Mr. Renton has been 
very wise and active in his campaign. In 
respect of Russia, the Report was framed 
before the disappointment respecting the 
St. Petersburg Exhibition was known, and 
it is very curious to see the suggestion 
that, as the regular course of trade should 
not be interfered with, a bonus should be 
offered (from the Cess money, we supposp) 
to all importers (or exporters) of Ceylon 
tea. We do not know if this will be 
approved of by Russian tea merchants, even 
if the " Thirty Committee " had the money 
aviiilable to make a grant or bonus worthy 
of acceptance. But it will certainly be a 
striking fact in the history of our tea trade 
development if the export of our staple to 
Russia should run up, year by year, within a 
compai-atively brief period, to 32 million lbs. 
without any further call on the Cess Fund. 
« 
IN THE WORLD'S IVORY MART. 
Milliards are impossible without billiard balls 
aad billiard balls, we may inform him, are 
equally impossible without the ivory sales. 
Ivory is one of those commodities that 
are most intimately bound up wiih the 
•• romance of trade." There lies the ivory on the 
merchant's counter, but who shall say how it was 
originally acquired— what dark dealings went on in 
the swamps and silences of Africa before ic found 
its way to the trader's possession ? About two 
years ago saw the most curious as well as abundant 
shipment of ivory from Africa tha* has been 
kuowu tor many years. It v/as the time of the 
Benin expedition, and the natives ransacked the 
country for ivory with which lo seize this unique 
opportunity of trading. Even the heathen tempies 
yielded up their treasures, for some of the ivory 
shippeil was iu the form of idols. And on several 
of the tusks there was the mark of human blood. 
The shipments reach the London docks at all times 
of the year but they are stored up carefully until 
the time of the sales, which occur four times 
yearly. Then they are sorted out and arranged in 
lots on the floor of one of the extensit'e warehouses 
attached to tne docks. Tlie actual sales occur 
AT TUE COMMKRCIAL SALE ROOMS IN 
MINCIWG-LANE, 
but for several previous days the ivory is on view 
to the trade ; the scene during these in- 
epeetion diys is not unlike an Academy 
private view Dotted about the warehouses 
stand the representatives of various firms, 
potebook 3,nd catalogue iu baud, markiujj 
off *be most attractive lots and diKcus.sinr; the 
merits of the display. —This week's sales arcTcou- 
side''ed sma'd as ivory sales go : but, nevertheless, 
the sale value of tlie stock is rou<j:lily estimated 
at £4i>,00a. The^ best ivory is whnt is known as 
the "soft teeih," which comes chiefly from East 
Africa, and particularly Ironi Z iMzibar, the West 
Coast supplying ^the bulk of the other kind— the 
"hard teeth," Good Zanzibar ivory is very valu- 
able, and in proof thereof it may he mentioned 
that t'le record price recently fetched by a tusk 
of this ivory was £350. fhe specimen thus pur- 
chased was acquired by the British Museum. 
MAMMOTH IVORY. 
Very little is importeel nowadays from India 
and Ceylon ; but -a fair supply comes from Siberia. 
The latter kind is thousands of years old, bein" 
the tusks of the ancient mammoths dug up ou'b 
of the ice. Their size is often tremendous. Our 
illustration represents two mammoth tusks on 
view this year, worth probably about £150 ; they 
are the finest ever seen at the dock. Mammoth 
ivory is of inferior quality, however, deterioratiu" 
sometimes to £2 per liiiiidr'jd-v.eighc. 
160-I.B TOOTH. 
The best ivory — that from which billiard balls 
are made — is priceil at about £89 per hundred- 
weight, "Bangle ivory" is also quite a recog- 
nised trade term, for the teeth used to make the 
bangles worn by Indian high-caste women. The 
average weight of the "teeth" is 80 lb, bub of 
course specimens vary tremendously. An enormous 
"tooth," weii^hing no less than 160 1b, has been 
on view at the dock. A curious thing iu this con- 
nection is the evidence of disease— corresponding 
almost witii our own toothache— sometimes 
discovered in the tusks, which are frequently 
hollowed out far beyond the average exieub by 
these ravages. When we consider what agonies 
of pain a small human tooth is capable of inflict- 
ing, we ought not to grudge the ready tear for 
the elephant afiiicted with several yards of tooth- 
ache. The cure for neuralgia must ba in great 
request in the elephant world. And it would 
probably not soothe the suH'erer to know that his 
diseased tusk 13 worth some £16 per huadred- 
wei£;ht less than that of the animal whose molars 
are in good coudition. — ilfor^izHf/ Leader, April 21. 
RUBBER FOREST IN THE SOUDAN, 
Lord Cromer, in a recent report to the Foreign 
Oltice, states that considerable quantities of rubber 
trees are reported in many of tlie districts of the 
province of Bahr-el-Ghazal. Mr Broun, the Director 
of Woods and Forests, has been despatched to 
report on the possibilities of re-opening the india- 
rubber trade of tlie Bahr- el-Chazal, which in 
former days was one of the principal sources of 
re^'enuein that district. It is also hoped, in the 
near future, to develop the rubber forests in South" 
wesiteru Kordofan, which, from all accounts, are 
of great importance. — Globe, April 25, 
MORE ABOUT PEARLS AND PEARL 
OYSTERS. 
THE MANUFAClUKK OF PEAKLS. 
(From "SCIENCE JOTTINGS.") BY DR. ANDRE^V 
WILSON i/i, THE "ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS, i 
April 19.) 
Among the curiosities of natural history science 
may be regarded the manufactnre of pearls. Iu cou« 
tradistinctiou to the case of the diamond, pearls 
appear before us as the work o£ Living animals. The 
di(iimi;in^ ia tli9 product C9$wical heat, aod pgssi.U; 
