The Ivory King: A popular history of the elephant and its allies

by Charles Frederick Holder

The frozen bodies of the mammoth were originally called mummies; and the first one that is mentioned is in a sketch of the journey of the Russian ambassador, Evert Yssbrants Ides, who, in 1692, journeyed through Siberia to China. A professional ivory-hunter travelled with him, and described the parts of a specimen which he found; and, to show how perfectly it was preserved, the neck was still colored by blood.

This same collector found a pair of tusks which weighed two hundred kilograms. He informed Ides that the heathen Yakuts, Tunguses, and Ostyaks believed that the mammoth lived underground, just as did the Chinese; and that it died only when it came to the surface, and saw or smelled air.

An interesting account of the folk-lore of the natives, relating to this point, will be found in J. B. Müller’s work referred to in the bibliography.

In 1839 a complete mammoth was uncovered by a landslide on the shores of a lake near the Yenisej River.

Nordenskiöld says, “Under the guidance of natives, I collected, in 1876, at the confluence of the river Mesenkin with the Yenisej, in 71° 28´ north latitude, some fragments of bones, and pieces of the hide, of a mammoth. The hide was twenty to twenty-five millimetres thick, and nearly tanned by age, which ought not to appear wonderful, when we consider, that, though the mammoth lived in one of the latest periods of the history of our globe, hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of years have, however, passed since the animal died, to which these pieces of skin once belonged. It was clear that they had been washed by the neighboring river Mesenkin out of the tundra-bank; but I endeavored, without success, to discover the original locality, which was probably already concealed by river-mud. In the neighborhood was found a very fine cranium of the musk-ox.”

African-elephant ivory, which is esteemed above all others, on account of its close grain, and less tendency to turn yellow when exposed, is semi-transparent when first cut, and in this condition is called “green” by the ivory-workers. As it dries, it becomes lighter, and more opaque, owing to the drying out of the water. During this process, the ivory shrinks more or less, as wood does; and in making box-covers, billiard-balls, and in all delicate work, great care is required, the ivory being generally roughly shaped, and placed in a warm room to gradually shrink and dry true. The plates used on piano-keys are dried and shrunk at once by being baked in an oven.

The greatest skill of the worker is, perhaps, shown in the original cutting, as here much waste can be made by ignorance or carelessness. Often the cutter finds cavities in the ivory, and not uncommonly bullets, and parts of various weapons. These have been shot into the tender pith at the base of the tusk, and, in time, become incorporated in the ivory.

A specimen of a tusk in the Odontological Society, London, shows a spear-head embedded in the ivory, completely enclosed by it and secondary dentine, though measuring seven and a half by ten inches. In another instance, the tusk was formed into a cup, while the embedded spear-head was left exposed as a stand. A javelin firmly embedded in ivory is exhibited in the collection of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, London.

Ivory is easily worked; and veneers have been cut, according to Tomes, by a reciprocating saw making a spiral shaving around the tusk forty feet in length, and twelve inches in width.