Transcribe Hornaday, W. T. Letter to Ward, Henry A. (1877-09-22)

[page number:] 3

an impression on the inch-and-a-half thick skin of an old elephant. But an elephant falls on one side in spite of fate. How are you going to get at that side? Not by rolling him over, that's certain. What if the brute falls in a deep hollow as one of my [??] did? Or clean away from water?

You say I can "with money in my pocket" save both skin & skel of an old male elephant. That is a task that I do not even [underscored:] hope [/underscore] to accomplish. If I had Jackson here, & could get enough men it could perhaps be done. But you must remember that only so many hands & knives can work to any advantage on an elephant, and I found that number much smaller than I had thought. Six men are [underscored:] ample [/underscore] for a skeleton, for only so much can be done at a time.

I am going to prepare the skin of the biggest old tusker I can kill, but you must not ask for his skeleton too at any price, unless the skin should spoil in my hands by damp & wet weather. I [crossed out: would] will [underscored:] try [/underscore] to save the bones, if I [crossed out: could] can get men enough, at all events. But it would be easier to skeletonize another fellow. Oh, if the good Lord will only give me my health & strength, without fever or dysintery [sic], [underscored:] I will not fail [/underscore] in the work before me. By the advice of all my friends, from the very first, i have at last "caved in," and ordered up a stock of Bass Ale & port wine for the coming campaign, hoping that a change in my habits will keep off the fever. I have taken a little ale during the last three weeks, & believe it is decidedly good for me. Anything to keep off the fever! It is still dry & so hot and the jungle fever is the order of the day, even the Hill tribes are