Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 May 1896 — THE IVORY INDUSTRY. [ARTICLE]

THE IVORY INDUSTRY.

It Means Death to Seventy-Five Thousand Elephants Annually. One-fifth of the world’s commerce in ivory comes to Great Britain, and it will* astonish . most people,, says, Answers, to learn that 15,000 elephants have to be killed every year to keep our markets supplied with the precious substance. Altogether, to keep the whole world in ivory—apart from fossil, tusks. —75,000 elephants are slaughtered annually. Africa is the great ivory country; and in the Congo basin, the best hunting gTOund, there at® supposed to be about 200,000 elephants, worth altogether about £500,000. The average weight of ivory obtained from a single elephant is about 50 pounds. Tusks weighing abbut 100 pounds each have been procured, hilt this is very rare. The most expensive tusks are those used in the manufacture of billiard balls; they cost, as a rule, £llO a 100weight. . ; Ivory dusk and shavings are used by confectioners to stiffen the more expensive kinds of jellies. The scrapings are often, burnt and made into a paint 'known as “ivory black,” worth about £2O. a ton. The hardest of all ivory is that obtained from the hippopotamus. It will emit sparks like a piece of flint when struck with steel, and is principally used in making artificial teeth.