Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1893-08-05
BONES OF MASTODONS.
WHY COMPLETE SKELETONS ARE
RARELY FOUND NOWADAYS.

with Professor Ward ON the subject OF
the mastodon remains discovered at Oak
field "A man came TO me yesterday, :
said he, "and showed me rib which he
said he had dug up. II was certainly a
mastodon nib. Iie said he was going to
dig for the rest of IL. but doubt II he
finds very much more You can easily
see how this might be. Suppose an OF
gets stuck in the mud and dies. wolves
tear the flesh and gnaw the bones: per
haps skunk viii carry some OF the
smaller ones into his hole. Bones de-
compose II there is food they become
scattered.
80. you see. before time has dug a
grave In which the remains OF our i'm
aginary OF may rest undisturbed for
ages. chance has scattered them far and
wide. So it 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 county
In the United States west of New Eng
land where remains of mastodons have
not been found at one time or another.
The country was full Of them. believe
that a mastodon tooth was found In this
city some twenty years ago, and several
bones were found near the Brighton
lock. The mammoth bore about the
same relation to the mastodon that the
Indian elephant does to the African.
'Mastodons were more numerous In
this country and mammoths In Europe
and Asia.
THE STUDY OF BONES.
II have here" continued Professor
Ward, "the skull and upper jaw OF a
baby mastodon which, as you see, Is
very perfect. The teeth are milk teeth,
and you can see one Of the second teeth
imbedded in the upper jaw. The teeth
formed at the rear and were pushed for.
ward. | say baby mastodon, and SO II
was. but il was as large as the largest
OK to be seen at county fair. Under
the upper layer Of skull you see this sort
Of honeycomb Of bone. You know
enough Of anatomy to remember that
the human skull is composed OF an
upper and under layer of hard bone,
with softer bone between. The human
head does not require to be- large 10 be
In proportion TO the body, and caput
just large enough 10 hold the brain is all
that Is required.
IAN elephant, mastodon or mammoth
does not require large brain. but they
all need a massive head. Here you have
the upper and under layer, as in the
human skull, but the porous bone be-
tween is magniied enormously IL Is
nearly foot in thickness In some Of the
larger specimens. l remember when |
was on the coast of Africa seeing what
supposed 10 be an enormous hornets
nest. The natives told ma 1t 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 honeycomb OF
bone exposed to view 1t was some time
before | could bring myself to believe
that 1t was really AN elephants skull"
Professor Ward showed his visitor his
collection Of mammoth and mastodon
bones. He has nearly enough OF different
sizes TO reconstruct an entire animal,
but, OF course, the variation In size
would prevent this. Ii is much more
satisfactory in the results obtained TO
take these specimens for models and re-
construct skeleton from wood. II sup
pose, said the reporter. after prolonged
inspection of these curiOsities, II sup
pose that human eyes never saw these
wonderful animals that rnamed over the
country in such vast numbers 80 long
ago"
THE ONLY EVIDENCE.
you are mistaken" said Professor
Ward, though your mistake has been
that of the world of science until recent
ly. 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 a Ratchet with
which the work was done has been found
near by. Now. there are no animals
which use stone hatchets to break up
bones That hatchet mead was once the
implement OF some primeval warrior. A
shoulder blade Of the mastodon, a bone
comparatively thin. has been found
pierced, as II by a spear. and the spear
head has been found with it. The spea,
was evidently thrust in and withdrawn
from the body of the animal. and when
1t was withdrawn its head was probably
torn of. Monkeys don't carry spears
'But, though these evidences are con
vincing enough, they are not the best
proof We have that man existed in the
days Of the mammoth and the mastodon
and has survived them both. Anti
qnarians who have spent so much time
in an endeayor 10 discover the meaning
OF the mounds erected by the mound
builders have made one thing certain.
Many Of these mounds We're constructed
In the shape Of animals and birds. There
on the wall hang a number of facsimiles
OF these mounds. They were prepared
by member Of the Milwaukee His
torical society. There is one which evi.
IDENTIFY represents hawk or some similar
bird Of prey with outstretched wings
and there Is another which evidently
portrays some squirrellike animal with
remarkably long tail. and here you
have as perfect a representation of an
eiephantlke animal as could well be con.
trived
"Now. had tho mound builders been
aslearned IN comparative anatomy as wa
are, and had they reconstructed mas
todon As we have, they could never have
understood the meaning Of tine cavity In
the skull which indicates 10 us that the
animal had trunk We could never
have done that had We not seen an ele.
plant No, the mound builders saw the
mastodons before they became extinct
They hunted them and, perhaps, wers
practically instrumental IN THAR awtar