The database includes details on both Salt and Sauce now. Salt's entry includes an excerpt from Dennis Fossett's orbiturary detailed Salt's death that was not featured in my book and I reproduce here for your interest:
"In October 1952, Salt, by now 85, lay down in her stable at Canterbury for the last time. She had fallen into a lake near the circus and, despite being hoisted out by crane, never recovered, though she was swaddled in blankets and hot water bottles and given a bottle of rum to drink each day. Hundreds of well-wishers brought gifts of pears, sugar and chocolate for her, but to no avail. Salt died from a chill, after 70 years in the circus."
It is interesting as another example of the inaccuracies found in the recording of the history of these two elephants - hence the "Legend" part in my book's title. Salt and Sauce were regularly promoted on Ringland's Circus (the circus owned by Dennis Fossett and formerly by his father, Tom) as being very old. One advert even has them around 90, so the exageration of the age is actually quite mild by comparison. The truth is Salt must have been in no more than in her early 50s when she died, as she and Sauce were clearly only babies when they first arrived in the UK in 1902 having been bought by George Lockhart Snr.
"The Legend of Salt and Sauce" Book of the Month! http://www.elephant-news.com/index.php?type=book
