Art ofmmddhig Carving in JVood. 247 



at the height of 1370 toises, an immense number of fossil 

 elephants' bones, botl\ of the African species and of the 

 carnivorous kind discovered near the Ohio. We caused 

 several to be dug up, and have sent some specimens of them 

 to the National Institute. 1 much doubt whether any of 

 these bones were ever before found at such a great height : 

 since that time I have received two from a place of the 

 Andes situated about two degrees of latitude from Quito and 

 Chili, so that I can prove the existence and destruction of 

 these gigantic elephants from the Ohio to the country of 

 the Patao-onians. ] shall bring w'ith me a fine collection of 

 these bones for M. Cuvier. About fifteen years ago the 

 entire petrified skeleton of a crocodile was discovered in a 

 calcareous rock in the valley of the Magdalen : it was broken 

 through ignorance, and it was impossible for me to pro- 

 cure the head, which existed not long ago. 



XLIII. The Art of moulding Carving in IVood. By Lenor- 

 WAND, Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Cetitral 

 School of the Department of Tarn *. 



Xngenious or curious men are often thwarted in the exe- 

 cution of their projects by the difficulty of finding in the 

 places where they reside workmen capable of assisting them 

 in the articles for which they may have occasion. Small 

 towns in particular furnish only indifferent workmen ; and 

 besides, they do not contain artists of every kind. Good 

 carvers, for example, reside only in large towns ; and these 

 even arc not very common. J had seen plasterers supply 

 the want of good modellers by incrusting in their decora- 

 tions plaster moulded on excellent models. I therefore con- 

 ceived that it might be possible to mould carving in wood, 

 to be afterwards applied to cabinet-makers' work. This idea 

 I did not at first carry into execution ; but two or three years 

 after, having occasion for some pieces of carving, I invented 

 anew artfj a^ will be seen by what follows. Necessity 

 .rendered me industrious, and I at length accomplished my 

 object. ' 



Wishing to obtain a case for a pendulum clock I had 

 ccjustructed, I drew a plan of it ; and presented it to an ex- 

 cellent cabinet-maker in the small town in which I resided. 



'•'' From BiLlirjil.h'iuc Phvuco-EnnomifjUi-, June i8oj. 

 + This art is not new j but the experiments of the author may furnish 

 ufctful liinti to aitiiti. — Euii. 



4 He 



