180 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 



and as Jumbo stood eleven feet high, the rule 

 of three applied to this thigh-bone would give 

 the living animal a height of thirteen feet 

 eight inches. The height of this specimen is 

 given as thirteen feet in its bones, with an es- 

 timate of fourteen feet in its clothes ; but as the 

 skeleton is obviously mounted altogether too 

 high, it is pretty safe to say that thirteen feet 

 is a good, fair allowance for the height of this 

 animal when alive. As for the majority of 

 mammoths, they would not average more than 

 nine or ten feet high. Sir Samuel Baker tells 

 us that he has seen plenty of wild African ele- 

 phants that would exceed Jumbo by a foot or 

 more, and while this must be accepted with 

 caution, since unfortunately he neglected to 

 put a tape-line on them, yet Mr. Thomas 

 Baines did measure a specimen twelve feet 

 high. This, coupled with Sir Samuel's state- 

 ment, indicates that there is not so much dif- 

 ference between the mammoth and the ele- 

 phant as there might be. This applies to the 

 mammoth par excellence, the species known 

 scientifically as Elephas prmigeniiis, whose 

 remains are found in many parts of the North- 



