The ivory king : $b A popular history of the elephant and its alliesHolder, Charles Frederick
History
The ivory king : $b A popular history of the elephant and its allies
Holder, Charles Frederick
Elephants
Jumbo’s measurements after death were found to be as follows:
circumference of the fore-arm, five feet six inches; height, about eleven
feet two inches; length of trunk, seven feet four inches; around the
tusk, one foot three and a half inches; length of fore-leg, six feet.
Mr. Barnum presented the skeleton to the National Museum, and the skin
to Tufts College, of Massachusetts, where they will ultimately go. The
two gifts were mounted by Professor Ward of Rochester, probably the most
stupendous piece of taxidermy ever attempted in any country; and, as
such, it may be of interest to know something of the methods employed.
Professor Ward thus describes his work in a letter to Mr. Barnum: ...
“Fortunately, we had one good life-photograph, also many measurements
of his body, taken after the sad accident in Canada. The mounting was a
matter involving such formidable conditions of weight and size, that no
ordinary base would serve to support him. His pedestal was first built
of heavy oak beams, the crossbars on which he stands being six by nine
inches in thickness. In these were planted eight great standards of
two-inch iron,—two of them to go through each leg,—which were bolted
above into equally heavy cross-beams, which held them together, and
strengthened the whole. Other beams ran lengthwise of the body, placed
straight, obliquely, diagonally, and in every direction calculated to
strengthen and stiffen, and all bound together with rods and bars and
bolts. One great beam, reaching from rear part through the body to centre
of his forehead, is calculated to sustain fully a ton’s weight, if at any
time his great head should need such support. The outlines of his body
and legs are then obtained by properly fastening pieces of thick plank
on edge, and cutting them to form required. The further final contour
of the body is secured by covering these timbers with wooden coating
two inches thick, and all built up, cut and chiselled to the exact form
desired in every part. Thus was gradually built up an elephant of almost
solid wood, of Jumbo’s exact size and form. To this was applied his vast
skin, weighing over three-quarters of a ton, and the same nailed and
screwed in place over the entire surface and along the seams. There was
no intermediate filling, and his skin now fits his wooden body in every
part as closely as does the bark on a tree.”
In mounting the skeleton, Professor Ward made some interesting
observations, and was able to compare Jumbo’s frame with that of a
full-grown mastodon which was being mounted at the same time. That Jumbo
was quite a young animal, was determined from an examination of his teeth
and bones; and, gigantic as he was, he might have attained much larger
dimensions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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