The Portland daily press., 1882-05-02
Monsters of Ancient Times.
When Elephants Larger than JUMBO
Roamed through the Middle States.


Roamed through the Middle States.
New York SUM-
Jumbo wasn't circumstance to the eie-
plants that used to stamp around this coun-
try" said professor Of natural history when
asked whether the beast just landed was of ex-
traordinarv SIZE SIN 1866, while excavating
in Cohoes. N. Y, workmen broke into what
seemed to be big pot hole or well, such as is
seen sometimes in the rock bed of rivers. 1t
was full of muck and peaty soil, and at the bot
tom were found the chief bones of an immense
elephant 1t was determined that the animal
had been washed into the hole when New York
State was covered with glaciers hundreds, per-
haps thousands, of feet thick. That condition
of the country can explain the number OF pot
holes from ten to sixty feet in depth near the
Mohawk River. They were formed by water
from the surface of glacier falling into ere
vases and forming cascades, often 1000 feet in
height. The Cohoes elephant was hall a mil
lion years ago, perhaps, entombed In great
mass Of moving ice, and when thawed out was
washed into the hole in which it was preserved
so many years.
In the collection in Rutgers College is a frag-
ment of tusk that is worn down and polished
on one side, showing plainly the peculiar gaci-
al stria. A tusk in the collection OF the Phlla-
delphia Academy of Science shows similar
markings. The American elephant was prob
ably exterminated by the glacial drift. A IA
NOUS place for these elephant remains is the
Big Bone Lick, in Kentucky. In Warren
County, New Jersey, some farmers, in cutting
peat in bog, found the remains of six animals
less than six feet below the surface. The most
perfect specimen was discovered at Newburgh,
n Y. The skeleton is now in the British Mu-
scum. 1t is twelve feet in height, and the
tusks are ten feet in length. The animals
roamed the western parts of the United States
and Canada, and along the entire line of the
Andes from degrees north latitude to 40 de-
grees south, and remains have been dug up at
Quito, nearly two miles above the level of the
sea. Their tusks are often plowed up by farm
ers in ST. GATHERINGS, Canada West Western
Ohio, Alabama, Mississippi and Vermont. In
Nebraska there was a smaller species. Com
pared to these animals the elephants of to-day
are pigmies. The Newburgh elephant was
twenty-five feet in length and more than twelve
feet in height, and its feet were two feet across
So perfectly was it preserved that the remains
of spruce and hemlock branches that it had eat
en- were found in the position of the stomach.
Those elephants rarely ranged further north
than the latitude of st. GATHERINGS, but beyond
this ranged hairy elephant third larger and
nearly three times as heavy as an elephant of
to-day. From the end of the trunk to that of
the tail it was thirty-fve feet in length. The
enormous tusks that reached out in great curves
were from ten to sixteen feet in length and
thirty inches in circumference at the base.
All along the borders of the Arctic Sea the
remains of these monsters are found, and with
in few months an interesting discovery has
been made. A company of men started from
Sitka, intending to search for the remains of
ancient elephants, on account of the ivory.
They followed the shores of the Polar Sea for
200 miles without finding a bone or tusk.
When almost discouraged, disheartened and
determined to abandon the search, one of the
party, in crossing glacier, broke through the
ice and disappeared. As the mass of ice was
more than 1000 feet thick, he was given mp as
lost, the nature of the crevasse being we'll
known to the rest. One of the party, however,
volunteered to attempt to learn the fate of the
man. All the rope and cord in the party was
bound together and the searcher was lowered
into the hole. When about 100 feet down the
line slackened, and hail was heard. The
searcher was hauled to the surface, and he ex-
planned that the crevasse was an enormous
room in the glacier, and that the incline was SO
gradual that with but little work steps could be
cut and the bottom reached. The line was made
FAST and, armed with axes, five of the party
we're lowered into the chasm. They found
foothold, and soon reached the bottom, where
the body of their comrade lay. He was only
stunned, and was soon restored 1t was then
their eyes having become accustomed to the
darkness, that the nature of their surround
ings became apparent. The room was about
500 feet in circumference. Against the walls
of ice dark, irregular. shaped masses appeared.
Each minute they became more distinct, until
the mentsaw high above them the indistinct
form of a gigantic animal standing erect in the
icy mass. Below 1t, but further in, and fully
1nCloSed was another, ana IN snort Time they
traced the forms of thirty-five entombed mon
sters. Some were standing erect on their mas
sive legs, others were lying on their backs as
if they had fallen into crevice and become
wedged in, while one huge monster had its
head down, with the body thrown over as if it
had fallen headlong into the icy pit. One of
the animals was partly thawed out, and the
massive head and tusks hung down. From the
ponderous trunk suspended large icicles, reach
ing to the floor and forming column for its
support The bodies were entirely covered with
thick, hairy coat resembling jute, but frozen
so firmly that it could not be cut An entire
herd had been entrapped in some manner, and
was gradually moving in the body of the glac-
Ter toward the sea to be sometime cast up on
the shore. Not one of the creatures, nor even
a tusk, could be obtained without months of
work, and the men reluctantly Abandoned
them.
early in the century fisherman living
near the mouth of the Lena River, in Siberia,
discovered one of these monsters protrudiDg
from an ice cliff on the shores of the sea. The
trunk, tusks and head were in full view above
him. For five successive years he visited the
spot, and was finally repaid one spring by find
ing the huge body on the sands below. 1t had
been partly devoured by bears and wolves, and
the flesh was so fresh and well preserved that
the meat was cut away and given to the dogs.
Even the brain and the eyes were we'll pre-
served, although, according to biologists,
these animals have been dead hundreds of
thousands of years. The skeleton is in the
Museum of Natural History at st. Petersburg.
About the same time gigantic hairy rhinoce-
ros was found in the ice, but it was destroyed
by bears before it could be saved"