Belgian Congo ] PRODUCTS (RICE, LIVE-STOCK, ETC.) 83 its relative importance had decreased considerably. The minimum weight of a tusk for export is 6 kg. In spite of reiterated assertions to the contrary, elephants are probably not on the decrease, though the number of large tuskers is declining, and the average weight of the tusks exported has probably diminished year by year. Tusks of over 100 lb. are now rare, though common enough ten years ago. The best elephant localities are in the eastern and northern territories .

Silk . — Large quantities of cocoons (of a species of Anaphe) could be collected by the natives in the forest areas. If the natives were shown how to wind and work the silk, a profitable wild-silk industry could be initiated. For exploitation by Europeans the industry has no future, unless the breeding of this silk moth caterpillar were undertaken, for the cocoons have to be searched for over very large areas of forest.

Live- stock . — The chief cattle districts of the Congo are the grass-covered uplands near the great lakes of the eastern frontier. The natives in these regions seldom kill their animals, and live largely on milk, as do those in the cattle regions of Uganda and East Africa .

The natives in Katanga, the low plateaux of the Sankuru district, and the open country of eastern Welle, also own herds of cattle, sheep, and goats. The cattle are all of the large long-horned type from East Africa. The goat is the typical dwarf domestic animal . from Egypt and western Asia . The sheep is the common woolless sheep of all negro Africa.. Fat tailed sheep are only found east and south of the Western Rift. Horses have done well in tsetse-free open -country areas in Welle and Katanga, but the mule is the hardier and more useful animal, and is G 2