Idaho news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1887-1891, 1891-07-25
ANTEDLUVIAN RELICS.
REMAINS OF MONSTERS OF A
PREHISTORIC TIME.
The Mammoth was an Inhabitant of the
North--Hls Bones are Sever
al centinents-GigantIe
RhinoseerI

In Germany prehistoric man un-
doubtedly hunted the mammoth. Near
Cronstadt its bones have been found in
great quantities, packed as closely as
II they had been placed so artifcially.
In the village of Thiede, near Bruins
wick, eleven tusks we're found in a
heap.
In the southern portion of this coun-
try an allied form, probably as large
but without hair, was found and called
the American elephant Recently one
was discovered near San Juan. South
ern California.
The writer as soon as he learned of
the find attempted to reach the spot,
but little was left to tell the story,
The railroad had cut directly through
the skeleton, so that the tusISs- were
all that could be secured and some Of
the teeth. The locality was examined
afterward by the writer who found
that the body must have lain in bed
OF fine sand that was undoubtedly a
qnicksand, and in this trap the big
animal had been caught thousands of
years ago. TO be held until to-day.
Some fun loving hunters after a sea-
son in Alaska, have reported that the
mammoths still roam the UNEMPLOYED
area Of that country and the state OF
Washington. but that Is simply a fabri-
cation. The mammoth has lived its
time and belongs 10 past geological
ages, the exact cause Of its extermina-
ton being a mystery. That it was
known to man and hunted by him is
very probable. The evidences of this
are rare it is true. A piece of tusk
has been found in France with fairly
correct representation OF the mammoth
engraved upon it, presumably by some
prehistoric artist. Again, arrow heads
have been taken from beneath remains.
while the much discussed elephant
pipes OF the interior Indian mounds OF
this country may be evidence in this di-
rection, though this is not positive.
The mammoth was formerly as COM
mon as are horses to-day, and the ivo-
ny from its tusks is still an important
commercial item. Mammoth tusks
frequently weigh $40 pounds apiece,
and fine specimens bring large prices.
One tusk was sold some years ago for
| $500, and fifteen years ago 10, 600 were
received in London. They weighed
about $50 pounds apiece, the price
being Is cd per pound.
The mammoth is not the only ice
giant the ice cliffs Of the North con-
ceal. Some years ago a hunter in
travelling across a rough country, came
to deep crevasse, and upon looking
in saw the body of some monster that
had been washed out
He lowered himself into the chasm
and found il 10 be a huge rhinoceros,
an animal that was as well fitted TO live
IN Siberia as the mammoth, having a
covering OF thick hair and wool to pro-
tect it from the rigors Of the cold. The
head OF the monster was large and the
nose armed with two tusks, one Of
which was enormous, being nearly four
feet long and large enough 10 be used
as a club by the natives.
II you can picture an ordinary rhi-
nocerous q third larger. or perhaps
half as large again, covered with red
dish hair and an undercoat of wool,
with tusk four feet in length, another
two feet, some idea can be had of the
strange creature that roamed the
country with the elephant and per-
haps fought with it, as those animals
, are known 10 do in Africa to-day.
The big rhinoceros is also well
known 10 the Chinese; its horn is sup
posed 10 be the tooth Of big dragon
or a unicorn. and when ground up
forms valuable item in medicine.
In the Chinese Repository is the
following from the pen Of DR. Lie She
Chan, q distinguished authority on
medicine in his time, on the subject of
the dragon (rhinoceros) bones:
The bones are found on the banks
of rivers and in caves OF the earth.
places whore the dragon died, anG
can be collected at any time"
We need not go so far back TO find
animals preserved in ice. Whalers
tell OF gigantic whales which have
been seen entombed in icebergs, and
several authentic cases are on recoro
where big whales have been observed
thus imprisoned, held aloft and float
ing around at the within of the Arctic
currents,