256 IN BRIGHTEST AFRICA 
A spacious open hall will occupy the central portion 
of the building. As I have planned it, the floor 
measurement of this great open space is sixty by one 
hundred and fifty-two feet; the height to the gallery 
at the sides is seventeen feet and that over the centre 
to the ceiling, thirty feet. Its floor space will be 
encroached upon only at the corners by the elevators; 
that is, the actual open floor space without columns 
or any obstruction whatever will be sixty by one 
hundred and sixteen feet. In the centre of this large 
hall will stand the group of four African elephants 
treated in statuesque fashion, mounted on a four-foot 
base with no covering of glass. At one end of the 
elephants, the group of black rhinoceros will be 
placed; at the other end, the white rhinoceros. Asa 
result of late developments in the technique of taxi- 
dermy, we are able to treat these pachyderms so that 
they will not suffer because of lack of protection 
under glass. Changing atmospheric conditions will 
have no effect upon them and they can receive es- 
sentially the care given to bronzes. 
Since the elephant is the largest land mammal 
in the world to-day and one of the most splendid of 
all animals of the past or present, and especially since 
it is typical of Africa, it is fitting that the elephant 
should dominate this hall. Except for bronzes at 
either end facing the main entrances, there will be 
nothing in the central open space to detract from 
the majesty of the elephants and the lumbering bulk 
of the rhinos. Visitors, pausing to study the ele- 
phants, may look out on either side as though through 
