JUNGLE MYSTERY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 123, 6 March 1936, Page 8

JUNGLE MYSTERY

DEATH OF ELEPHANTS, VALLEY OF IVORY? _____ > The bod} 7 of an elephant that has died a natural death is rarely found. Some years thousands die through epidemics, yet searches have failed to reveal the bodies. Some experienced hunters have a theory that elephants bury their dead. Others aver that somewhere is a vast elephant cemetery that has never been located, to which the huge animals repair when they know their end is near. Ivory possesses a romance all its own, and a subtle charm that has appealed to all humans down the long aisles of time. The beauty of it with its mellow age-old russet tint, impossible to imitate artificially, is alone sufficient to Make one dream of Eastern seas, Densest jungles, sun-drenched quays, And dark-skinned Nabob consignees. e After the precious stones and metals it is the most pleasing substance for decorative and personal wear; a delight to the eye and a gratification ,ol the senses. It is capable of treatment in a charming variety of ways, and it is almost indestructible. Formerly the supply was loosely considered to be inexhaustible but the last two decades have told a different tale, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain in quantities commensurate with demand. The elephant has been hunted out from all but the most difficult and inaccessible localities, and even hero game laws, now almost universal, combine with natural obstacles in the diminishing of supplies. Price has. risen in inverse ration to supply, and it now stands in the neighbourhood of £2OOO per ton, and still is rising, for the best “solt” quality. Game laws ■will in the end doubtless result in increased production, for the elephant is a prolific breeder—Darwin said that in 900 years two became a million, after allowing for all natural wastage. They frequently reach the age of 160 years and more; though the effect of an ever further-reaching civilisation can only be to the ultimate extinction of the great animal, whose domain in the waste spaces of the tropical world will one day be required for producing food to meet the imperative need of the world’s rapidlyincreasing popidation. . There are still vast herds of elephant in the heart of Africa, Asia, and the great-Isle of Borneo, but they aie diminishing, although in some degree protected everywhere. I once stood for two hours on a mountain range in Siam counting a herd, led by two huge white bulls (really a dirty grey) defile in the valley below. There were more than 1400 in the herd, but the liunter-guide of the party said that the self-same herd numbered more than 5000 when he first made their acquaintance as a youth. The Siamese tusks rail to a great size and value; the Bangkok Club verandah authority tells of a pair and these a cow’s—recently smuggled out of the country, which brought £3lO on the London market. These ncie exceptional. The African elephant is the largest of the species, though the Asian may run him close, while the Borneo pieplant is distinctly on the small side. Still, there is no great disparity in the weight of the tusks (teeth to the hunter). , _ Africa’s record tootli was found m Abyssinia. It was 12ft. llin. long by 26-i-in. in circumference, and it weighed 2571 b. Kenya’s greatest is 10ft. 4in. by 27in. in circumference weighing 2231 b. Borneo’s record tooth, in the possession of the Sultan of Bulungan, neighs. 2011 b. . There was, it is said, a footstool m the palace of the Emperor Menelik made of the base ol a broken tooth, measuring 39-Jin. in circumference; it is interesting to speculate on the great force which must' have been exercised in the fracturing of a member of such gigantic proportions and strength as this. The hunting of elephants lias always been an arduous, fascinating, and even enthralling pursuit, for it calls foi great courage, skill, and resource, combined with a high standard of physical strength and great power of endurance. The limiter has to lace hardships and suffer deprivations over a period of many months on end as lie risks his life, and fortune, in feverridden country where dense jungles arc inhabited often by intractable and hostile tribes which would not hesitate, given the opportunity, to destroy nun as ho makes his way to the coast with the valuable product of bis season s hunting. Many a nin:rod lias met Ins death in such a manner, particularly, perhaps, in Asia. Africa is, and always has been, the happy hunting ground of mighty hunters. The names of (’ornwalhsHarris (who discovered the great African lakes long before the day o Speke and Grant), Darby, Well, Flace, the Australian Finnaughty, and oeious fall captains, strangely enough), recall to the mind deeds of stirring adventure and colossal “bags ’ ol i' oi y 111 the dense jungles of the heart of the dark continent. Bell, hunting near the source or the Nile in 1908, killed 44 large bull olepliant in three days, and “S’* from these alone more than loOQlb o first-quality ivory, which brought him in nearly £IOOO. Jn one season he secured, and safely transported to the coast at grave risk and constant danger from attack (which kept him sleepFess for nine days and nights at a spell) some seven tons of i\oi\. These figures, of course, all relate to kills. There were no discovered deposits, although, as was invaluably the case search was made for such, is generally supposed that the tale of the elephants’ cemetery—the \ alley of Ivory—is a myth, and an exploded one, whereas the very opposite is the case beyond: doubt. Every interested European, and every thinking native hunter living in elephant country all over the tropical world, is convinced of the

existence of this valley of ivory. There is, indubitably, some secret spot, sought for unsuccessfully by generations of hunters, where elephants, knowing they arc about to die, repair to lav their bones and their ivory.