Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1891-10-01
A TALK ABOUT MAsTODoNs.
why Complete Skeletons Are Not Found
at the Present Day

Mt the PRESENT LAY.
a Rochester Post Express reporter had
an interesting talk with Professor Ward
on the subject of mastedon remains just
discovered lat Oak6eld. "a man came to
me yesterday, said he, land showed me
a rib which he said he mad dug up. 1t
was certainly a mastodon rib He said
he was going to dig for the rest of it
but doubt If he finds very much more.
You can easily see how this might be.
Suppose an OK gets stuck in the mud and
dies, wolves tear the flesh and gnaw the
benes; perhaps skunk will carry some of
the smaller ones into his hole, Bones
decompose. If there is flood they be-
has dug a grave In which the remains of
An imaginary OK may rest undisturbed for
ages chance has scattered them far and
wide So 1t is with the fossil remains of
the mastodon and mammoth, and the man
who finds one bone of the animal and digs
for the rest, is very apt to be disappointed.
There is hardly a country III the United
States; west of New England, where re-
mains of mastodons have not been found
at one time or another. The country was
| full or them. | believe that mastodon
tooth was found in this city some twenty
years ago, and several bones were found
near the Creighton lock. The mammoth
| bore about the same relation TO the mas
todon the Indian elephant does to the
! African. Mastodons were more numerous
in this country, and mammoths in Europe
and Asia. Tons of mastodons ivory are
found In the north, and sent to England,
where they are turned into billiard balls
and other articles of ivory in which a pure
color Is Ut no Importance, as the ivory is
usually stained by time, though other
wise perfect.
Il have here continued Prof Ward,
1.-The skull and upper jaw of baby masto-
don, which, as you see, is very perfect.
| The teeth are milk teeth, and you can see
one of the second teeth Undecided In the
upper jaw. The teeth formed at the
rear, and were pushed forward. say
baby mastodon, and so it was; but it
was as large as the largest OK to be seen
at county fair. Under the upper layer
Of the skull you see this sort of honeycomb
OF bone. You know enough Of anatomy to
remember that the human skull is COM
posed of an upper and under layer of hard
bone, with softer bone between. The hu-
man head does not require to be large to
be In proportion to the body, and a caput
Just large enough to hold the brain is all
that is required. An elephant, mastodon
Or mammoth does not require large
brain, but they all need massive head.
Here you have the upper and under layer
as in the human skull, but the porous bone
between is magnifed enormously 1t is
nearly foot in thickness In some of the
larger specimens. | remember, when |
was on the coast of Africa, seeing what
supposed to be an enormous hornets nest.
The natives told me that it was the head
of an elephant, which they had killed
three or four years previous. The upper
layer of the skull had been shelled off,
leaving the middle honey-comb of bone
exposed to view. 1t was some time be-
fore | could bring myself to believe that
1t was really an elephant skull.
Prof. Ward showed his visitor his coIlec-
ton of mammoth and mastodon bones. He
has nearly enough, of different sizes, to re-
construct an entire animal, but, of course,
the variation in size would prevent this.
1t is much more satisfactory, in the re-
suits obtained to take these specimens for
models and reconstruct a skeleton from
wood.
Il suppose. said the reporter, after
a prolonged inspection of these many curl
osities-''I suppose that human eyes never
saw these Wonderful animals which roam
ed over the country ii such vast numbers
| so long ago
"You are mistaken said Prof Ward,
Though your mistake has been that of the
world of science until recently. Bones of
the mastodon have been found split open
in such way that the object of breaking
them was evident 1t was to obtain the
marrow within. But more: The stone
head of Ratchet, with which the work
had been done, was found near by. Now,
there are no animals which use stone
hatchets to break up bones. The Ratchet
head was once an implement of some pri-
meval warrior A shoulderblade of the
mastodon, bone paratiyely thin, has
been found pierced, as by spear, and the
spear head has been found with it. The
spear was evidentally thrust in and with
drawn from the body of the animal, and
! when it was withdrawn its head was prob
ably torn off Monkeys don t carry spears.
But, though these evidences are convinc-
ing enough, they are not the best proof
we have that man existed in the days of the
mammoth and the mastodon, and has sur
lived them both. Antiquarians who have
spent so much time In an endeavor to
discover the meaning of the mounds erect
ed by the mound builders have made one
thing certain. Many OF the mounds were
constructed In the shape of animals and
birds There, on the wall. hang number
of fac SMILES Of these mounds They were
prepared by a member of the Milwaukee
| Historical society. There is one which
evidently represents hawk, or some SIM
liar bird of prey, with outstretched wings;
and there is another, which evidently per-
! trays some squirrel-like animal, with re-
| markedly long tail; and here you have as
perfect a representation of an elephant-llke
animal as could well be contrived. Now,
had the mound builders been learned in
comparative anatomy as we are, and had
| they reconstructed mastodon, as We have,
| they could never have understood the
meaning of the cavity In the skull, which
Indicates to US that the animal had trunk.
We could never have done that had we not
seen the elephan Mt. No, the mound builders
saw the mastodons before they became ex-
tinct. They hunted them, and, perhaps,
were practically instrumental in their ex-
termination.
There is mound in Ohio half a mile
long continued Prof. Ward, which is
a perfect representation of serpent, head
and all. The mound ar a portion of the
surrounding country, hiv, been purchased
by Mrs. Hemingway, of Boston, and been
laid out as a public park. La that box
Pm sorry it hasn't been opened yet, or /
would show it to you-is a model, from
which we are to construct raised map of
the mound and the country surrounding
it. This map will be very elaborate, and
will be exhibited at the worlds fair in
chicago.