ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 
113 
WRECK OF THE TOP BAR OF KARTOUM’S FENCE 
The railroad iron joined the outside fence at “A.” The railroad iron projecting out in mid-air was torn 
out from the top of a fence post at “B.” Two pieces of broken railroad iron are leaning against the 
bottom bar. 
particle of steel in his surroundings, to see what 
he could dislodge, bend or break. In spring 
weather, when the ground was wet and soft, he 
pushed at our steel fence-posts until lie moved 
the great masses of concrete which embraced 
their roots to a depth of three feet, and bent 
them out of line. To thwart this industry we 
put huge steel braces on the outsides of the fence 
posts. 
Finding by trial that the character of the top 
bar of the tall fence was no better than it should 
be, he heaved up from below and bent some of 
those bars, to a shocking extent. To discourage 
that we contributed to the support of that top 
bar a standard steel railroad iron weighing 
fifty-five pounds to the yard, and this has 
availed much. 
But to an elephant like Kartoum, railroad 
irons are not quite all-in-all. They have their 
limitations. Last summer (1921) Kartoum 
pushed with his forehead against the side of one 
of those irons until it broke in two, and was 
thrust out at the break about six inches. Four 
months later he went to that projecting angle on 
the opposite side of that partition fence, and 
pushed the break back into line. 
On Sunday, September 17, 1922, Kartoum in¬ 
dulged in a diversion with that partition fence 
which came very near to a serious injury to a 
visitor. He attacked the top of his partition 
at the point of the original break, and closely 
adjoining its junction with his outside fence. 
The strength that he put forth, and the amount 
of steel that he broke and tore apart, is un¬ 
believable until seen. 
The railroad iron was broken in two in a 
second place, and it and its channel iron bed 
were torn loose from the outside fence and from 
the fence post to which both were attached. The 
long arm of the'railroad iron was bent far out 
into midair. A middle section of rail was 
snapped off, and fell to the ground. The ter- 
