and there a strangely-carved paper-cutter. In the same shop may be
found albums and prayer-books with ivory covers; and, not far away,
penholders, curious toys, and parasol-handles, all made of the glossy
white material.

Where ivory is abundant, chairs of state, and even thrones are made of
it; and in Russia, in the palaces of the great, floors inlaid with
ivory help to beautify the grand apartments. One African sultan has a
whole fence of elephants' tusks around his royal residence; the
residence itself is straw-roofed and barbarous enough, both in design
and in structure. Yet imagine that ivory fence!

The elephants slain in Africa and India in the course of a year could
not furnish half the ivory used in the great markets of the world
during that time. Vienna, Paris, London and St. Petersburg keep the
elephant-hunters busy, yet it is impossible for them to satisfy all the
demands made upon them, and the ivory-diggers must be called upon to
add to the supply.

Every spring, when the ice begins to thaw, new mines or deposits of
fossil ivory--a perfect treasure of mammoths' tusks--are discovered in
the marsh-lands of Eastern Siberia. There are no mammoths now--unless
we call elephants by that name; yet their remains have been found upon
both continents. In the year 1799, the perfect skeleton of one of
these animals was found in an ice-bank near the mouth of a Siberian
river. As the vast ice-field thawed, the remains of the huge animal
came to light.

The traders who search for mammoths' tusks around the Arctic coasts of
Asia make every effort to send off, each year, at least fifty thousand