FIGUKES. 97 



Gerrard, as also written), drawn from life from a young animal, 

 which, with the stuffed skin of its mother, arrived in Holland in 

 1612. This representation consists of two figures, one of a full- 

 grown animal, the other of a 5 oung one a few months old.* The 

 hind i)ortion of the larger animal is partly hidden by the figure 

 of the smaller one. The general form of the body, the tusks, 

 and extremities are all faithfully portrayed, the hind limbs being 

 turned forward in their natural position, the first figure, and 

 the onlj^ one for the next two hundred and fifty years, in which 

 the hind limbs are placed in a natural position. This figure 

 has been many times copied, first by De Laett in 1633, and sub- 

 sequently from De Laet, by WormiusJ in 1665, by Jonston, 

 Shaw,|| Schinz,^ Gray,** and doubtless by many others. Most of 

 the early authors, as Wormius, Jonston, and others, copied, not 

 directly fi'om Gerard, but from De Laet, while Shaw copied 

 from Jonston, and Schinz from Blumenbach, in several cases 

 these second and third hand representations doing great injus- 

 tice to Gerard's original figure. Blumenbach, ft through the 

 kindness of his friend Forster, was enabled to take his from 

 Gerard's original imprint, and it is a much finer illustration 

 than that afforded by De Laet, the one usually copied. Yon 

 Baer|| also refers to a colored copy of Gerard's figure, which he 

 obtained, with a collection of natural-history illustrations, from 

 a bookseller in Leipsic, in which the coloring was truthfully 

 executed, agreeing closely with the color of the young animal 

 he saw alive in St. Petersburg. Gerard's often-copied drawing 



* See Fig. 10, copied by Gray, and here reproduced. 



t Nevus Orbis, seu Descrip. Ind. Occident., 1633, p. 38. 



tMus. Worm., p. 289. 



De Piscibus et Cetis, 1649, pi. xliv (also in subsequent editions). 



II General Zool., i, 1800, pi. Ixviii*. 



U Naturgesch. und Abbild. der Siiuget., pi. ixv, lower figure. 



**Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1853, p. 115, fig. 9. Gray's figure is here given 

 (see Fig. 10). 



ft Abbild. naturbist. Gegenstande, 1796-1810, No. 15 (plate and text). 



ttLoc. cit.,p. 129. 



$ Von Baer's account of this important early figure is as follows : " Diese 

 vortrefflicbe Zeicbnung wiirde in Kupfer gestocben und einigen Exemplaren 

 von dem Abdrucke der Descriptio ac delineatio geographica detectionis freii, 8. 

 transitus ad occasum supra terras Amerieanas in Chinam atque Japonem ducturi 

 etc., der von Hessel Gerard in Amsterdam 1613, 4. besorgt ist, beigegeben. 

 In diesem Buche wurde der Originalkupfersticb von Forster gefunden und 

 Blumenbacb mitgetbeilt. Da er sich, wie Blumenbach sagt, in keiner an- 

 dem Ausgabe desselben Werkes und auch in dieser mtr in den wenigsten 

 Exemplaren findet, so ist wohl wahrscheinlich, dass er gar nicht zu dem 



Misc. Pub. No. 12 7 



