ELEPHANTS 
735 
of no one who has been more painstaking in measuring ele¬ 
phants in the flesh than Akeley. He is of the opinion that 
his tallest bull, which was shot primarily for the large size of 
its tusks, does not represent the largest bodily size attainable 
by the African elephant, and that larger-sized though smaller- 
tusked bulls have been seen by him in Uganda. It would be 
of real service in this connection if a few of the largest-bodied 
specimens out of as large a herd of bulls as could be found 
together were collected and their skeletons deposited in 
some museum where they would be available for comparison. 
There are many other records by sportsmen of n feet or 
more for elephants shot in East Africa. Selous, the veteran 
elephant hunter of the Zambesi, however, has never met with 
any having a height of 11 feet, but states that the range in 
height in that part of Africa is from 10 feet to 10 feet 6 inches. 
Another elephant hunter, A. H. Neumann, who has had a 
wide experience and was also a careful observer, gives n 
feet 3 inches as the height of the tallest specimen he has 
killed, but states that the largest bulls he has shot in the 
Lake Rudolf region were less than this, and ranged from 
io feet 6 inches to io feet 9 inches in height. Our own 
measurements of the height of East African bulls fall within 
these limits. The tallest elephant in the National Museum 
collection is a rogue bull shot by Colonel Roosevelt in 
Uganda, having a height of 10 feet 9 inches at the withers. 
The bulkiest or largest bull, however, was the first one 
which he shot, on the southwest slope of Mount Kenia, 
which had a height of 10 feet 6 inches, and tusks weighing 
65 pounds apiece. Another large bull, which he shot later, 
near Meru, had a height of 10 feet 4 inches. The actual 
relative bulk of elephants may best be determined by a 
comparison of the size of their skulls. Using this sort of 
evidence, we are justified in concluding that the bull from 
the southwest slope of Kenia equalled the famous “Jumbo” 
in bulk, the skull being decidedly greater in greatest breadth 
(some 2 inches), which is a better comparison of relative 
size than the height at the withers. “Jumbo” is usually 
stated to have stood n feet, but Ward only credits him 
with 10 feet 7 inches, which is perhaps nearer his actual 
height and agrees with the height of his skeleton, 10 feet 
4 inches, as mounted at the American Museum of New 
