The best rule for determining the quality is probably
that of its vicinity to the equator. The ivory brought from within the
10th degrees of north and south latitude is incomparably the finest in
the market; it is at the same time the most transparent, which of
itself is a valuable characteristic. Our Indian ivory for some years
back, instead of being shipped by way of the Cape for England, has, in
order to save time, been sent by the Red Sea to Suez, and thence
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.
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