360 PICTURESQUE SKETCHES 



First of all, let us take a general view of this 

 extraordinary animal, whose singularly massive pro- 

 portions cannot but strike every one with astonish- 

 ment.* Its length is nineteen feet, its breadth across 

 the loins nearly six feet, its height not more than 

 nine. The general proportions of the body rather re- 

 semble those of the hippopotamus than the elephant; 

 and the trunk itself, much larger than that of any 

 hippopotamus, is terminated by a pelvis, and by hind 

 extremities nearly three times as large as those of 

 the most gigantic elephant. These hind-legs are pro- 

 vided with feet set at right angles to the leg, as in 

 the bear; the heel projects nearly fifteen inches back- 

 wards, and the toes, armed with claws, proceed more 

 than twice that distance forwards, so that a proper 

 base is afforded for the massive column, and the 

 whole is able to sustain the weight that once rested 

 upon it. There is also, in addition to the hind legs, a 

 tail more than equal to them in length, and propor- 

 tionally thick and strong; and this tail must have sup- 

 ported, instead of depending from the broad termina- 

 tion of the pelvic region. 



To match these strange proportions of the hinder 

 extremity, we find the fore-legs longer than the cor- 

 responding part in the hind limb, but having a per- 

 fect mechanism for free motion in all directions, and 

 connected to the sternum by a very powerful bony 

 apparatus, also permitting free motion. This extre- 

 mity was terminated by unusually broad expanded 



* See the figure of the skeleton in the preceding page, where the pro- 

 portions will be recognised on comparing the figure with that of an ordi- 

 nary-sized man, drawn to the same scale and placed by the side for this 

 purpose. 



