The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1878-10-10
miscellaneous.
MANIMoTH II,,, AND MAsToDoN.


The New York Tribune prints an inter
esting letter from Professor Alexander
WinChell, in which he describes the
great European mammoth which Proies'
BOr Ward has purchased and placed IN
his museum at Rochester. In every es'
sential particular this reconstructed ami
NAL is undoubtedly fair specimen OF
the huge monsters which roamed through
the wilds of Northern Europe and Asia,
and also iu Alaska and along the western
slope of the Rocky Mountains, as far
south as the Columbia river, while the
human race was still in its infancy. Even
during the present century the remains
of these animals have been found in ST.
IBERIA, so perfectly preserved by the ice
that their flesh was greedily devoured by
the dogs of the discoverer. Dr. wards
specimen has been constructed by actual
measurement of the skeleton of a Siber-
ian mammoth now in the Imperial Mus
cum of st. Petersburg, In North Amer
iCa, east of the Rocky Mountains, the
elephantine creature which hourished
eontem poraneously with the mammoth
is known as the mastodon. More than
one hundred skeletons of this animal
have already been discovered, although
the interior of the continent is compara-
lively unknown ground to the antiquar'
ian. There were many points OF likeness
between them, but the mastodon was the
smaller of the two, had shorter and slen'
derer tusks, and was probably smooth
skinned, while the mammoth was appar'
emily covered with shaggy hair.
Professor WinChell reviews very fully
the difference between the two kindred.
families, and sums up what is known OF
the life and habits of these ancient crea'
lures. But to certain class of readers
the most interesting part of his letter will
be that in which he discusses the proba-
BILE cause of their extinction. He claims
that in the time of the mammoth the
climate of northern Siberia was temper
ate, yielding an abundant vegetation, and
especially sustaining immense forests on
which the mammoth mainly subslsted'
In this. region their numbers were 80
great that the tusks of the mammoth now
furnish an important part OF the ivory
commerce. How came these vast herds
to perish, and leave not single straggler
behind? Professor Winchell attributes
their destruction to sudden invasion OF
arctic weather. Some secular change, he
believes, produced an unprecedented
precipitation of snow, under which,
huddled together in the sheltering val
leys and deep defles of the rivers, the
mammoths persisted. 1t was one of those
sudden changes which Mr.. Clarence King
not long ago described in his remarkable
essay on "Catastrophism," and of which,
as he showed, geology furnishes many
examples. 1t was probably in some SIM
liar catastrophe that the mastodon also
became extinct.
How such catastrophes were produced
or whether they are still liable to occur,
is purely matter of speculation. A sud-
den change in the earth's orbit, or in the
direction of the earth's axis, would read
lily account for them but it is extremely
improbable that such changes could ever
have taken place. In the variability of
the sun we may possibly find a more
plausible solution of the difficulty, but
even there the variations are now 80
slight as to be utterly inadequate to pro-
duce such surprising results. Without
entering upon this wide field ofspecula-
ton, Professor Winchell cites various
proofs of these great and sudden climatic
changes.