ELEPHANT HUNTING, ETC. 211
River
large herds remain practically untouched. The fact that 514,085 pounds
of ivory was exported in 1912, valued at $1,172,581, as against 497,656
pounds in 1911, with a value of $1,096,597, shows how large must be the
number of elephants in this valuable Belgian colony.*
The
elephants of Togoland (German West Africa) are threatened with
extermination, there being no protective laws to control indiscriminate
slaughter; indeed, so reckless and improvident are the native hunters
that they do not even spare the young elephants, and now and then tiny
tusks from a baby elephant are brought to the merchants. Hence the
ivory exports are dwindling down, and were it not for the fact that the
good price the material commands in Lome attracts some ivory from the
Gold Coast, the amount exported would be still smaller. The figures for
1912 show exports of but 2,400 kilos, and in 1911 the returns were
2,150 kilos.f
In
each of the West African colonies, including Nigeria, elephants are
protected by special laws which prohibit the killing of young animals
and of female elephants. A $50 license only serves to permit the
killing of one or at most of two elephants during the year for which it
is issued. J
The
strict regulations in regard to the hunting of "big game" in the
Transvaal** would, of course, serve to protect elephants from unlawful
hunting, should any still be left in that region, but this does not
seem to be the case. That they formerly ranged through the country is
of course a well-known fact that finds confirmation in the names given
*Vice-Consul General Harry A. McBride of Borna, "Development of Belgian Kongo," Daily Consular and Trade Reports, April 16,1914, p. 280.
jDiplomatic
and Consular Reports No. 5226, Annual Series: Germany, Report on the
Trade and Agriculture of Togoland (German West Africa), London, 1913,
p. 9.
ÎCommunicated by U. S. Consul N. J. Yerby, of Sierra Leone, Africa.
"See Handbook of the Game and Fish Preservation Laws of the Transvaal Province, 1912, Pretoria, 1912, 50 pp., map and two "Addenda" of 15 pp. and 8 pp. respectively.
