THE UPNOR ELEPHANT 
ACCOUNT OF THE FIND 
Three or four years before the war a party of Royal Engineers, while digging 
trenches for practice on the banks of the Medway at Upnor, opposite Chatham 
Dockyard, cut through a number of large bones, some of which, together with a 
large tusk, were completely destroyed. Operations were then suspended, and no 
further notice at that time seems to have been taken of the discovery. In 1913, 
Mr. S. Turner, of Luton, while searching for flint implements in this locality, 
picked up some pieces of bone which he fortunately sent to the British Museum 
for identification. One of these bones was recognized as being a carpal bone of 
an elephant of exceptionally large size. It was then decided that a careful 
examination of the spot was desirable, and towards the end of the autumn this 
was made. It then became clear that much of the skeleton was still imbedded 
in the clay, and a few bones, including an axis vertebra of gigantic size, were 
collected. The year being already far advanced and the weather bad, operations 
were suspended, and for various reasons were not resumed till the summer of 1915. 
Then the military authorities having granted the necessary permission, the exca- 
vation was resumed, and continued until there seemed to be no hope of further 
discoveries. The extraction and preservation of the bones were carried out, under 
my supervision, by Mr. L. E. Parsons, who lived near the spot for nearly three 
months and displayed great skill in the work. This was rendered exceptionally 
difficult by the very fragile character of the bones which lay so near the surface 
that they were penetrated by the roots of the bushes and other vegetation growing 
over them, and were riddled by worm-burrows. The dampness of the situation 
also added to the difficulties. The results, however, have amply repaid the labour 
involved in the work. 
The method by which the fragile bones were extracted from the tough clay 
may be of some interest. The upper surface and edges of a bone were first 
exposed as much as possible without danger of breakage. Then the specimen 
was enveloped as far as possible in a covering of strips of coarse canvas dipped in 
plaster of Paris ; when this casing had thoroughly hardened, the bone was turned 
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