The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1873-08-28
@TUSKS OF THE MAMMOTH
London Grdphic]

Il history termed the PoSt-PHocen
Age Of the Neozoic or Tertiary Epocl
; of creation for this earth we inhabi
e there still lived many huge mammals
y the ofsprings of thsss still more
gigantic and terrible beasts which
! had thriven in the warm climate O
t the Miocene Age. But the condi
tons Of animal life were greatly
altered in the ATTITUDES of the bes
known countries of Europe and Asia
by visitation of extremely cold and
long winters, alternating with
fiercely hot summers, which continu-
ed several thousand years in success
ion and which was probably due to
Astronomical variations in the declina-
ton of the earth's polar axis from
the axis Of the ecliptic or apparent
circle Of the SUMS oblique path round
the earth. Whatever may have
been the cause of this amazing series
of events, usually called the Glacial
Epoch, which covered our part of the
world, as we can see by the plainest
marks, which sliding glaciers and
floating icebergs, big enough to re-
move mountains and scoops out
basins for lakes, or valleys for the
flow Of rivers, cutting and grinding
the hardest primeval rocks, there is
reasons to believe that few species
of the largest beast survived the
the stern ordeal. fitting themselves
with good thick hairy or woolIy
coat to endure the more than Arctic
rigors of its awful climate
Immense numbers of teeth and
tusks of the mammoth" says Juke's
Manual of Geology, "are found in
Siberia, and complete beds of them
In Escholtz Bay, on the north coast
of America. The whole carcass of
the animal has actually been recover
ed from a cliff in Siberia, and was.
found to be coasted with long, coarse
hair. forming shaggy name about
the neck, underneath which was a
woolIy coat, evidently a defence
against the severity Of cold climate,
and showing that, unlike our modern
elephants, the animal is not tropical
but Arctic. It's tusks arc largely
exported from Siberia to be used as
ivory, and some found in England
have been thus used. They are
longer and more incurved than
those OF either of the existing eleph-
ants, some of the tusks measuring
ten feet in length; while the transverse
.pla'es of the teeth were closer and
narrower than in the Asiatic eleph-
ant, and very different, therefore,
from the African, in which the plates
of enamel form lozeuges on the upper
surface. At Escholtz Bay the cliffs are
said to be either ice, or coated with ICE
and on the top f them, embedded in
and partly covered by, the boggy and
sandy soil, are numberless bones that have
lost but little of their animal matter, hair
being dug up with them and the whole
island having charnelhous SMELL. Ill
Is said that In Siberia, not many years ago
the purtly-decom posed flesh of a mommoth
which had lain many thousands of wears
Embedded in the ice, supplied dinner to
some half. starved ard half savage III an Of
that forlorn country; but we doubt the
truth Of this story
A quantity of Siberian mammoth tusks
imported from Revel, ia the Baltic. has
been on view lately, upon the floor or the
ivory store.hOusc attic London Decks
The Iarg est tusk weighs 20l lbsg its Length
being 10 it. 6 ms; but it has evidently
b9en longer. The diameter VI the tusks
at their base Is 9 in. to iAs. on an aver
ge. Their ivory il not cgual III qu4l ~,
uto that of the elephant, and some OF t a
mch decayed by time. The b4sf tusks
however, should be worth go to $40 per
cwJ, and the whole lot is valued st $50
900 to 100000. There wa, sale 81
seventeen tons of it;last Thursday, by
public auction.