have the terrible slaughter of 9120 elephants for one year's
consumption of ivory in England! This, however, is not the case. In
these calculations the immense masses of fossil ivory we have alluded
to are obviously overlooked, and the equally immense quantities of
broken teeth which are disinterred from the deserts of Arabia, or the
jungles of Central Africa. The truth is, we have good reason to know,
that a very large proportion of the commercial supply of Europe is
sustained from the almost inexhaustible store of these descriptions of
ivory.

Nevertheless, it is indisputable that the insatiable demands of modern
commerce will inevitably lead to the ultimate extermination of this
noble animal. His venerable career is ignominiously brought to an end
merely for the sake of the two teeth he carries in his mouth; which
are very likely destined to be cut into rings to assist the infant
Anglo-Saxons in cutting _their_ teeth, or partly made into jelly to
satisfy the tastes and appetites of a London alderman. We cannot
reasonably hope for a new suspension of the traffic: indeed we can
only look for its extension. The luxurious tastes of man are inimical
to the existence of the elephant. From time immemorial, the war of
extermination has existed. His rightful domain--in the plain or the
wilderness, or amid the wild herbage of his native savannas--is at all
points ruthlessly invaded. But the result is inevitable--it will come
to an end; and some future generation of naturalists--those of them at
least who are curious in Palæontology--will regard the remains of our
contemporary races of elephants with the same kind of astonishment
with which we investigate the pre-historic evidences of the gigantic
tapir or the mammoth.

* * * * *