Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1862-08-13
WHOLE NO. 1898.
From the Meadville Pa..) Journal.
A Visit to the Grave of a Nam
moth

s'Yes. where the huntsman winds his matin horn,
And the eoueh'd hare beneath the covert trembles;
Where shepherds tend their flock. and grew the
Where fashion on our parade assemblies
Wild Horses. Deer. and Elephants have strayed
HORACE SMITH.
4 few days since my friend D. V. DER
IcKsoN presented me with part of tusk.
a number of vertebra and ribs of one of
the early settlers of this county, which
had been found by some workmen while
making an excavation for the railroad
through the land of James George, ESQ.,,
in this county. / Immediately visited
the spot-procured some very interesting
relics of an antedeluvian monster of a
race long since extinct, but whose re-
mains have been found in various locali-
ties in the north of Europe and America.
I inquired if tooth had been found, and
was informed by the Hibernian Paleon-
tologist who had exhumed the remains,
THAT niver a tooth had been found at
all; but that they had dug up ftIt."-
The foot was produced and proved to be a
molar tooth of mammoth, whose huge
proportions went far to excuse the mis-
take. The tooth when perfect weighed
| five and a half pounds it was so well
preserved that the enamel on the grind
/ ing surface was so hard that a file could
scarcely mark it. | also procured several
ribs over four feet in length, which, from
their shape and size, must have been the
smaller ribs, as fragments of others were
| found of double the width and thickness
of those found entire. A tusk was also
| found, which | was informed must have
/ been nearly ten feet in length and q
inches in diameter at the base. Some
parts of this tusk were so well preserved
/ that on removing the outside decayed por-
tion found pure white ivory. A number
of other bones have since been found,
with FIVE perfect teeth, some of them
much larger than the one mentioned.
This huge monster OF the past ages
must have been from l6 to Is feet in
length Of body, and from 10 to II feet
high. Itwas an herbiverous animal, feed
ing upon leaves and limbs of trees as
well as the rank vegetation of the period
in which it lived
The Mammoth is an extinct species of
Elephant, its name being derived from an
Arabic word, Behemoth, signifying Ele-
plant. The fossil remains of this animal
have been found in great numbers in ST.
IBERIA, near the mouth of the rivers Lena,
/ Yenesei and Oby, which run from about
latitude 450 north to 750, alsoa few skele-
tons have been found in North America,
some, believe, as far south as Kentucky.
In the year 1870 the body of Mann
moth was discovered by Tungusian fish
ermon on the banks of the river Lena, in
latitude 75o, frozen in the mud, where it
had remained for years, and yet the flesh
was so well preserved that dogs, white
bears, wolves and foxes fed upon it; even
the eyes were well preserved. The skin
was covered first with black bristles from
10 to l6 inches in length, secondly with
: hair of reddish brown color, 4 inches long,
and thirdly with wool of the same color.
The tusks together weighed 800 pounds,
the head alone 4l4 pounds. The skeleton
of this animal is now preserved in the
, museum at st. Petersburgh. -.--
Pal@ontogists differ as TO the time when
this animal lived, but the weight of au-
therity goes to show that it is antedeluvi-
an and lived contemporary with the Me-
gatherium, the Ceinatherian, the Mylodon
and a number of other monsters who,
with it, once roamed over the primeval
world, and whose remains, found deep
, buried in the earth, alone remain to tell
their history. That they lived at peri
7. ed when this portion of the globe possess
en- a warmer climate than at present, Is
also believed, as among their remains are
found those of plants and animals which
could not have lived in a climate like
r ours.
. But the change came which swept them
. away forever from among the living things
f of earth, entombing them to be preserved
= for ages as memorials of the past, which
n should tell, in language too plain to be
:, misunderstood, that many times since oul
!, globe commenced its revolutions around
n the sun, changes have passed over it which
;, would be more than sufficient to sweep
p away every living that now moves upon il
!, The earth has gathered to her breast again,
And vet again, the millions that were born
- Other unnumbered. unremembered tribes"
, A. B. RICHNoSO.