Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-09-05

lenesi: In % perfect state Of preservation that
the bulb OF the eve, with which the animal
looked out upon tue world 100 900 wears ago, ia
stu Kept In the museum at Moscow Another
carcass was discovered in the same year near
the river Taimyr imbedded in CLAW and sand.
The name mammoth, now accepted as an ad-
lective synonym for bigness in ANYTHING from
a minstrel troupe to a hotel comes from the
russian mamant'-a name applied by the ma
tive tribes TO the suppositious beast that bur-
rows underground They believe that it perishes
whenever by any chance it is exposed to light.
WHERE MAMNorHs noAMEp.
In the days when the mammoths roamed in
herds through northern Siberia the climate of
that region must have been comparatively mild
IL could not have been very warm because in
mat case their long fur would not have been
required, bnt 1t was doubtless temperate Sud-
aenly there came a frig;d change. II it had
been gradual the animals would have slowly
migrated southward, but evidently il came all
at once. The gigantic beasts congregaied for
shelter In valleys, where they were over
Wheimed by snow drifts, and lay down to die
beneath heecy ava!anches, which were finally
; ; into solid ice This ice compos-
Ing glaciers was swept through the gorges to-
ward the Arctic ocean, carrying the buried
creatures along with it.
rwo-BoRNED RHISocERosEs
have been found similarly entombed. Thus their
mnmmlnea bodies were scattered along the
shores OF the great northern sea- Some must
have escaped the first great cataclysm. but
winter dire and permanent was on the march;
the mammoth population struggled vainly
against the despotism of frost, and the empire
that was set up has erumbled only beneath the
suns OF many thousand summers
CoSFoUSDgD WITH MlsroDoN.
The mammoth is often COMPOUNDED mis-
takenly with the mastodon. There was GER
tainly resemblance between the two. but the
species were altogether distinct, as is most con-
clusively shown by the differing formation OF
their respective teeth. The great American
mastodon seems to have been the dominant
proboscidan in the new world in the same age
when the mammoth was cgregiously con-
spicuous in the old world. Evidence exists that
the mastodon survived on this continent to as
late date at did the primevaI mammoth in
Europe. The Indians retain well-defined tradi-
tions OF the animal. Some of their ancient
mounds are built in the shape of the nlastodon
10 this day they refer to the beast as the
grandfather of the buffalo," relating that the
giant species was wiped out by the Great Spirit
because 1t destroyed other game Mastodons
IN great numbers became mired in shallow
lakes OF the west long since dried up from the
former beds Of which their bones are dug up
today In great numbers. Their skeletons are
found sometimes standing erect in beds OF peat,
mari or mud.
What wonderful thing il would be if one
could catch glimpse OF things as they were
during that epoch of old when this con tinent-
the real Old world, spread from Atlantic to Pa
chic, when Europe was merely an Archipelago
was populated by herds of quadrupeds as
strange as they were gigantic The relics of
that strange extinct population now afford the
most interesting study which the science of the
present IL able TO offer to mankind.