Dying Ground of the Elephant.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVII, Issue 22, 29 May 1912, Page 37

Dying Ground of the Elephant.

It is asserted by some and disbelieved bv others, that 'the African elephant, when it feels death approaching —in res ponse to that premonition which many authorities say is instinctive in most animals —retires to some secret retreat where it can die in peace. These dyinggrounds are occasionally dis-covered by the natives, and as they necessarily eon tain a vast accumulation of ivory, become the perquisite of the chief of the district in which they are found. If the lying-ground is outside his domains, the secret of the spot is rigorously preserved until all the ivory has been removed to, a safe hiding-place within the territory of the chief. The existence of these dying-grounds has, says Mr. D. Blackburn, writing in “Chambers’s Journal,” been disputed and ridiculed by several persons whose authority on most matters connected with the African wilds is recognised. The theory that the dying mammoth seeks some secluded spot is supported by the fact that many, if not most, animals retire to the closest possible cover when badly wounded. During the terrible visitation of rinderpest in 1894-95, when oxen and buck were carried off by hundreds of thousands, it was noticed that the latter invariably sought cover in which to die. Even those who reject the dying-ground theory accept this: what they refuse to credit is that hundreds of elephants at different periods select the same spot. One of the strongest arguments—in fact, the one which first gave rise to the

belief iu the dying-ground was this: Traders in visiting a chief for the pur pose of purchasing ivory have sometimes found only a small supply, and had no reason for not accepting the explanation offered—that few elephants had come within the district covered by the native hunters. Even in savage Africa the eternal law of economics prevails. Scarcity of supply and urgency of demand produce enhanced prices, and the chief asks and obtains more for his score or so of tusks than he would other wise have got for thrice the number. It has often happened that within a short period of a purchase a message has been received by the traders an nonneing that a successful hunt has provided the chief with a large stock ot ivory. On returning to the kraal tha traders have been surprised at finding a. supply of tusks that could only have been the product of a wholesale massacre. The fact was in itself suspicious, for elephants are not so plentiful as buck; but there was another circumstance which aroused attention and pro voked inquiry. All the tusks bore unmistakable signs of having been long exposed to the weather. This was, oi course, quite compatible with the theory

that the chief had a secret reserve, and very wisely did not put all his stock on the market at once. For years this explanation was accepted. It was the late Emin Pasha who first revealed the secret of the existence of dying-grounds. He also made the in teresting and illuminating declaration that several hunters who professed to live by their prowess as elephant-hunters owed their good fortune to having been shown by friendly natives, or having dis covered for themselves one of the won drous hoards. The revelations of Emin Pasha were made to an Englishman who in the early 'seventies had been of service to the German savant at a serious crisis in his affairs, the information being given byway of recompense. It is a common be lief among African professional hunters that Emin Pasha held the secret of more than one dying-ground, and that the pro moters of the relief expedition were quite as anxious to relieve the ivory as the explorer. But the old German-Jew was no business man. The discovery ot a new species of butterfly would have given him more genuine delight than a dozen dying-grounds choked with tusks.