The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-09-13
OTHER SIMILAR DISCOVERIES


were made more recently. In 1S43 a NAM
moth was found by Midendorf, Russian
naturalist. on the Tas, between the Obi and
the Yenesi, in SO perfect a state of preserva-
tion that the bhb OF the eye, with which
the animal looked out upon the world &c.,
600 years ago, is still kept in the museum at
Moscow. Another carcass was discovered in
the same year near the river Taimyr inn
bedded in clay and sand. The name mann
moth, now accepted as an adjective
synonym for bigness in anything from a
minstrel troupe TO hotel. comes frcm the
Russian "mommatn-a name applied by the
native tribes 20 the suppositious beast that
burrows underground. They believe that
it perishes whenever by any chance it is ex-
posed to light.
WHERE MAMMOTHs ROAMED.
In the DAYS when the mammoths roamed in
herds 10 Northern Siberia the climate Of that
region must have been comparatively mild.
1. could not have been warm, because in
that case their long fur would not have
been required, but it was doubtless temper
ate. Suddenly there came frigld change.
If it had been gradual the animals would
have slowly migrated southwark, but evi~
IDENTIFY 1t came all at once. the gigantic
beasts cOngregated for shelter in valleys,
where they were overwhelmed by sncwdrifts
and lay down to die beneath fleecy avalapche
which were finally transformed into solid
ice. This ice. composing glaciers, was
swept through the gorges toward the Arctic
ocean, carrying the buried creatures along
with it.
TWO-HORNED RHINOCEROSES
have been found similarly entombed. Thus
their mummified bodies were scattered
along the shores of the great Northern sea.
Some must have escaped the first great
cataclysm, but winter, dire aud permanent
tho mammoth nODula-
ton struggled vainly against the despotism
of frost and the empire that was set up has
crumbled only beneath the suns OF many
thousand summers.
COMPOUNDED WITH MASTODON.
The mammoth is often COMPOUNDED mis-
takenly with the mastodon. There was
certainly resemblance between the two.
but the species were altogether distinct, as
is most conclusively shown by the differing
formation of their respective teeth. The
| great American mastodon seems TO have
been the dominant proboscidian in the new
world in the same age when the mammoth
was so egregIously conspicuous in the old
world. Evidence exists that the maStodon
survived on this continent to as late date
as did the primeval mammoth in Europe.
The Indians retain well-dehned traditions of
the animal Some of their ancient mounds
are built in the shape of the mastodon. To
CnlS ony tney IeLer To Tue peAst as one
grandfather of the buffalo," relating
that the giant species was wiped out by the
Great Spirit because it 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 to-day in great
numbers, The skeletons are found some>
times standing erect in beds Of peat, mari
or mud.
What a wonderful thing it would be if
one could catch a glimpse of Things as they
were during that epoch of old when this
continent-the real old world, spread from
Atlantic to Pacific when Europe was merely
an archipelago-was populated by herds OF
quadruped as strange as they were gigantic.
The relics of that strange extinct popula-
ton now afford the most interesting study
which the science of the present is able tc
offer to mankind.