476 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT
A
Mr. Stanley, taken prisoner by the Indians near the mouth of the
Tanissee, relates that after being transferred through several tribes,
from one to another, he was at length carried over the mountains west
of the Missouri to a river which runs westwardly; that these bones
abounded there; and that the natives described to him the animal to
which they belonged as still existing in the northern parts of their
country; from which description he judged it to be an elephant. Bones
of the same kind have been found, some feet below the surface of the
earth, in salines on the North Holston, a branch of the Tanissee, about
the latitude of 36|° North. From the accounts published in Europe, I
suppose these are of the same kind with those from Siberia."
PRIVATE COLLECTIONS OF IVORIES
There
are in the United States many privately owned ivory collections. The
finest of these belongs to Henry Walters, of Baltimore, and forms part
of his splendid museum on Mt. Vernon Square, one of the most complete
on the American continent. Here are shown authentic and characteristic
works of Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Carolingian, Early French,
Early German, Italian, and Spanish workmanship, as well as some of the
later specimens of French work, including the finest examples of
Moreau-Vauthier, the greatest modern ivory carver. There are also
notable specimens from Japan, China, Siberia, and other Asiatic lands.
One
who has principally devoted attention to collecting ivories from the
Congo, or made of Congo ivory, is Thomas F. Ryan, of New York, whose
efforts were favoured by friendly relations with the late King Leopold
II. A masterpiece of Belgian art is a crucifix in which the cross
measures 36 in. in length, while the figure of the Crucified is 24 in.
high.
In the collection of T. S. Van Volkenburgh are wonder-
