Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-10-10
TWO TINY NIAMNroTHs.
Types of an Extinct Species Brought to
PHILADELPHIA.

Rnlld0elpnlds
When Cain and Abel were little boys,
playing merrily about their mothers
knee, and Adam was busy cataloguing
the animal kingdom and giving them ap-
propriate names. says the Philadelphia
Record, mammoths were as common as
COWS are nowadays. But for some rea-
son the species became extinct several
thousand years ago, and like its cOntem-
porarIes, the mastOdOn, the megalOsau-
rus, the ichthyOsaurus, the pterodactyl,
the plesiOsa urus and the dOdO has never
been seen or heard Of since, except when
its bones have been dug up and put on
exhibition in some museum Of natural
history wealthy enough to pay for so val
liable a prize.
What, then, was the surprise and de-
light of the scientific world when it was
recently announced that two live man.
moths had been captured in the interior
Of one of the islands of the Malay Archi-
pelagO, and that the marvellous beasts
were on their way to New York.
Their arrival, about a fortnight ago,
was greeted with great joy, and the
students of natural history who were
posted on the subject of prehistoric bones
at once proceeded to feel the skulls, ribs
and kneecaps OF the visitors 10 see If those
features agreed with the same prominent
architectural pecularities Of their long
since extinct ancestors.
The result was in all respects salts
factory, and the modern mammOths were
given certificates Ofcharacter that proved
them TO be members Of a family whose
disappearance had been bewalled for
centuries.
Then it was that Philadelphia showmen
secured for exhibition in this city the
lot obi Of . n
time grew to a size compared to which
Jumbo is a mere doll. The two strange
animals are as yet very small, Shunga,
the largest, being but four feet high, and
Quedah, the smaller Of the pair, only
measuring thirty inches, but they are
confidently expected to grow until they
reach the height attained by their ances-
tors before the flood. At a first glance
they look like diminutive elephants, but
they are covered with a heavy growth OF
coarse hair, which varies in length from
five to eight inches, and the roots of which
are lost in thick, WOolly underground.
Their mild and gentle eyes are Of blush
shade.
The most astonishing feature of the
strange beasts is their surprising So
gacity, and, although they have only been
trained for a few weeks, they show an
ability TO learn tricks that causes wonder
dLuOu- Tut men " ~ nave UGH ADA yCeA1
accustomed to training animals and who
have had charge Of their education.
A private exhibition of the mammoths
was gwen upon the stage OF the dime
museum yesterday morning, and showed
that the new arrivals were possessed OF
really extraordinary acuteness. Phunga,
the larger of the pair, walked tightrope,
rode on velocipede as though he under
stood the principles of the machine per-
fectIy, and played upon a mouth organ,
blowing and drawing the air into the in
strument with so much feeling that his
audience was almost tempted to believe
that the sagaciOus little beast was actu-
ally endeayoring to perform some fayorite
air learned in his home, 1900 miles dis
tant, amid the mountains of the Malay
Islands. Several other clever tricks were
gone through without hesitation or bung-