In Hannibal’s Steps— According To Hoyte

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28950, 18 July 1959, Page 13

In Hannibal’s Steps— According To Hoyte

(Rec. 10 p.m.) TURIN, July 17. Jumbo, a two-ton elephant will set out today to prove a fact nobody ever doubted —Hannibal's crossing of the Alps. The only point in question seemed to be just where Hannibal made his historic crossing. 2000 years ago, said British United Press.

Professor ,J. M. Hoyte, of Cambridge University, seemed to think—contrary to some other historians—that Hannibal made the journey by way of the 7300 ft. Clapier Pass. Others claimed that it was either the 4500 ft Mongine Pass, or the 6000 ft Little St. Bernard Pass.

Professor Hoyte—at 26 the same age that Hannibal was when he descended on the Romans in 219 B.C.—believed that the only way to prove his theory was to make the crossing himself, with sn elephant. The Turin Zoo’ volunteered to lend 12-vear-old Jumbo Jumbo is to leave Turin today bv train and lorry for Chambery. France. The group will then eiart its long walk over the pass

into Italy, and will finish back tn Turin some 12 days later. Professor Hoyte and Jumbo will be accompanied by a group of Cambridge University students and the elephant’s Austrian trainer, Ernest Gobold. Mr Gobold plans to play his mouth organ as he walks alongside Jumbo, because, he shid. it keeps the elephant happy. It will probably take another 15 days or so to start the expedition, so the group is not expected to complete the journey for another month. A team of British sailmakers has made Jumbo a canvas overcoat. well padded to keep off the alpine winds. Special boots have been made for the elephant in case his feet -get sore on the rocky pass. Mr Pietro Tertu. director of the Turin Zoo, and Dr. Antonio Taibel have worked out a special diet for Jumbo. It includes eight sacks of dried bread. 150 baskets of apples and bran. 10 sacks of flour and bran, 200 bottles of mineral salts and vitamins, and 10 barrels of hay.