The finest ivory is that obtained from Equatorial Africa; either the natives bringing it out, or, as we have seen in a former chapter, Europeans penetrating the little-known recesses of the Dark Continent to procure it.
The west-coast ivory, when received, is generally almost black upon the outside, and presents any thing but an attractive appearance. The tusks are received by the wholesale trade, as Westendorp & Co. of London, and Grote & Co. of New York, the leading ivory-firms, wrapped in raw hides, sewed up by raw-hide thongs. These outside wraps are called “Schroons” by the trade. The different ivories have various tints; and an expert can tell at a glance where a tusk, or even a small piece of ivory, came from. The ivory which is shipped at Calcutta has a slight pink hue, and is very fine; while that received from Egyptian ports is brittle and poor. A visit to the ivory-vaults of the Messrs. Grote & Co., New York, would well repay any one interested in the subject of the economic value of animals. Here all kinds of ivory may be seen, and the extent and variety of objects made from it are astonishing. Here we find numbers of rings of ivory which are awaiting shipment back to Bombay, where they will be sold as bangles or bracelets to Hindoo women. Numerous flat ivory slabs are sold to Sheffield, England; and, finally, we may see them returned in the shape of knife-handles.
Some of the largest tusks in the Grote vaults are six inches in diameter at the base; and the tusk at the door of this firm, on 14th Street, used as a business sign, is nearly nine feet in length. This house manufactures almost every article that ivory can be made into; and objects ranging from billiard-balls to flat spatulas, for testing flour, may be seen in their cases. Billiard-balls require the choicest kind of ivory. The best are made here, and sell at five dollars each. I believe the Chinese have alone successfully produced the famous concentric balls of ivory, for which they have been so long and justly famous. Nothing is wasted in the ivory-shop. Even the dust is collected, and sold to the New-York florists, who claim that its results upon roses and other choice flowers are astonishing. It is also used in tempering certain steel tools, and in the manufacture of some acids.
To respond to this great demand, many professional ivory-hunters are constantly in the field. In a single season a small party have obtained twenty thousand pounds of ivory; for which they received twenty thousand dollars at Khartoom, or one dollar per pound. The tusks of elephants differ much in size; and, to show the loss in wear, Holub states that the wear on a pair of African tusks in the animal’s lifetime may equal six pounds,—the ivory being ground down when the animal uproots trees, and uses them in similar ways.
In the Abyssinian and Taba regions, tusks rarely exceed forty pounds, and average only about twenty-five. In Equatorial Africa they average about forty pounds, and range up to one hundred and fifty.
Gen. De Lima, returning from Mozambique, brought two straight tusks for a cross on the high altar of the cathedral at Goa. One weighed one hundred and eighty pounds, and the other one hundred and seventy. They had the slightest possible curve. “The Friend,” a paper published in Ceylon, states that the officers of the ships “Quorrah” and “Alburhok,” engaged in the Niger expedition, were shown two tusks by a native king which measured two feet and a half in circumference at the base, were eight feet in length, and weighed two hundred pounds each. According to Broderip, a tusk of three hundred and fifty pounds weight was sold at Amsterdam; but he gives no authority. Tusks often take peculiar shapes. An elephant was seen, in 1844, in the district of Bintenne, near Friars-hood Mountain, one of whose tusks took a complete turn, then resumed its original direction; and in the museum of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, there is a spiral tusk. The most remarkable freak of nature relating to tusks, that I am familiar with, is recorded by Thomas Baines, F.R.G.S., who was with Livingstone on the Zambesi. In various chapters, one, two, three, and four tusked elephants have been referred to; but this giant had nine. Mr. Baines says that it was shot in 1856; and a Mr. Edwards, a partner of Chapman, with whom he travelled, bought six of the tusks. “It had on the right side five, and on the left four, all growing, as usual, out of the upper jaw. The pair occupying the usual place were of about thirty pounds weight each; just behind them projected a pair somewhat larger, pointing downward and backward; between these were situated two others, and before and behind them in the right jaw were two more, but in the left only one, behind all these, being much smaller.”
The ivory is always sold by weight; and the buyers are often deceived, as the tusks are liable to contain cavities, or have the pulp loaded with metal by designing traders. The size of the tusk generally determines the price; the larger it is, the more valuable, those below six or seven pounds being held at less than half the price per pound than those much larger. Many tusks are ruined through the ignorance of the natives. They are generally, however, transported with great care, the finest being wrapped in wax, or some similar substance.
Before considering the different kinds of ivory, and the various uses to which it is put, let us glance at its composition. In structure, it is equivalent to dentine, the material of which nearly all teeth are composed, and has an organic base or matrix, which upon examination is seen to be permeated by a vast number of very small and delicate canals, each of about one-fifteenth of an inch in diameter, which seem to commence at the pulp-cavity, presumably the axis, and extend outward to the periphery of the tusk. The little canals are not packed closely together, but are separated by spaces of about their own diameter. To these tubes, the regularity of their disposition and their delicacy, the ivory owes its fineness of grain, and its remarkable elasticity. By examining them, an expert can distinguish elephant ivory from any other; as they have a peculiarity of making a series of decided bends in their course, from the axis to the periphery, which produces a graining in the ivory, unique and peculiar.
Ivory is often confused with bone, but is a very different substance. It is much finer in general structure, much more elastic, and is without the canals that convey blood-vessels through the bones. If a section of a tusk is made some distance from the growing pulp, the centre, or core, will be found to be darker than the rest, and of a different nature. This is the remains of the pulp. The outer portion of the tusk is still different, or composed of a compact layer of cementum that covers or encloses the entire tusk. The intermediate substance is ivory, which shows many circular lines about the central dark spot, calling to mind the growth-marks seen in sections of trees, and due to the fact that in all ivory there are great numbers of very minute spaces known as “interglobular spaces.” The localities occupied by these spaces are characterized by a smaller proportion of lime-salts and a greater proportion of organic matter than other portions. Hence this part of the ivory is not so dense as the rest, and is more liable to decomposition: so, in many of the fossil tusks that are found, a sectional view often shows it separated into six or seven distinct rings, the intermediate organic matter having disappeared. It is supposed, that, in living ivory, these interglobular spaces are filled with some organic substance. According to Von Bibra, ivory contains from forty to forty-three per cent of organic matter; while human dentine contains from twenty-four to thirty-four per cent.
From its delicate structure, ivory takes a rich polish; and it is also susceptible of being dyed. The ease with which it is carved, makes it one of the most valuable of all materials for artistic carving.