conveyed, generally on the backs of camels, across the Desert to
Alexandria, where it is again shipped on board the Oriental
steam-packets for Southampton, and conveyed by railway to London. By
this expeditious mode of transit, however, the value of the ivory is
frequently much deteriorated. The damage it sustains in being so often
loaded and unloaded; and the intense heat of a tropical sun to which
it is openly exposed in crossing the Isthmus--render the tusks unsound
at the core, numerous cracks and fissures appear over the surface, the
points are frequently broken off, and on the whole its market-price is
considerably depreciated.

There is no means of accurately determining the intrinsic value of our
importation of ivory--the price is so variable. In 1827, upwards of
3000 cwt.; in 1842, upwards of 5000 cwt.; and in 1850, about 8000 cwt.
was imported, of which about four-fifths was entered for home
consumption. In point of quantity or bulk it is not calculated to
attract attention, nor does the commercial transaction excite much
notice. A quiet advertisement in the front page of the _Economist_, a
few letters from London, Birmingham, and Sheffield to City
brokers--for the ivory-trade is confined to a very small number of
houses--and a cargo of African or Indian ivory, amounting perhaps to
L.50,000 sterling, is quickly and easily disposed of. The supply at
this moment is unequal to the demand, and the price is steadily
advancing.

Small teeth weighing from 4 to 20 lbs. are worth from L.10 to L.16 per
cwt.; and the price of the enormous tusks we have referred to, which
are far beyond the limits of the above scale, is probably equal to
L.50 per cwt. or upwards. African is worth about 25 per cent. more
than Indian ivory of corresponding size and quality.