JUNGLE CEMETERIES

Evening Star, Issue 19520, 30 March 1927, Page 3

JUNGLE CEMETERIES

TWO DAYS’ SALE OF IVORY A two-clays’ sale of ivory was opened in the London Commercial Sale Rooms, Mincing lane, recently (states the ‘Daily Express’). Men had travelled from all parts of Europe and America to purchase the ivory, which had been brought from the tropical jungles or East Africa and the Congo. There were thirty-eight and a-half tons of it to bo sold, and the prices realised averaged about £2,000 a ton. Not a single piece of ivory, however, was seen in the rooms. The entire cargo lay packed in the docks, where it had been on view for days betorehnnd—the great tusks which measure 9ft or more in length, in canvas, and the smaller “points,” for billiard halls, which come from the female elephant, in small cases. There were, in addition to me elephant tusks, rhinoceros horns, narwhal horns, seahorses’ teeth, wa.rus teeth, and boars’ tusks, all to bo sold. The buyers watched the offering of the lots with unfailing care. Each man knew whether the particular kind ot ivory offered was suitable for tlm articles ho had to manufacture, which ranged from the hacks of hair brushes to bead necklaces. Prices wore good and slightly above those realised at previous sales. Billiard ball points realised £133 the hundredweight, and solid tusks £lO3. Bidding for seahorses’ teeth was not so brisk. An interested spectator stood m one corner of the sale rooms, where he had been in attendance at these ivory sales fo" the last forty-two years. He was Mr Smith, a representative of the firm of importers who were selling the ivory. “ The supply and demand for ivory has been firm for the last forty years,” said Mr Smith to a ‘Daily Express’ representative. “You must not think that these tusks being sold are the result of the wholesale slaughtering of wild beasts.« The natives organise expeditions to wander through the jungle until they find elephant cemeteries. These are places where elephants, roaming in search of food and water, have died. The discovery of a cemetery means a good haul ot ivory. The tusks remain sound and good, except in damp or swampy regions, for many years after the death of the elephant.” Experts themselves find it hard to tell the difference between soft and hard ivory, but usually East Africa produces soft ivory add tho West Coast Siard. Tho natives used, at one time, to attempt to increase the weight of the tusks by filling them with stones and sand, but so often was the trick discovered that they_ have practically stopped resorting to it.