Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1893-07-11
BONES OF MASTODONS.
WHY COMPLETE SKELETONS ARE
RARELY FOUND NOWADAYS.

Carried Away by Smaller Creatures ant
Then the Bones Generally Deoompose
Evidence That Men Saw Them.
A reporter has had an interesting talk
with Professor Ward on the subject OF
the mastodou remains discovered at Oak.
field. "A man came to me yesterday.
said he, land showed me rib which he
said he had 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 bones; per-
haps a skunk will carry some of the
smaller ones into his hole. Bones de-
compose. II there is flood they become
scattered.
$50, you see, before time has dug a
grave in which the remains of our i'm
aginary OK 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 enc bone of the animal
and digs for the rest is very apt to be
disappointed. There is hardly Il 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 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, 1.-THE skull and upper jaw of
baby mastodon which, as you see, Is
very perfect. The teeth are milk teeth,
and you can see one of tho second teeth
imhedded in the upper jaw The teeth
formed at the rear and were pushed for
ward. | say baby mastodon, and so il
was; but it was as large as the largest
OK to be seen at u 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 aud under layer of hard bone,
with softer bone between. The human
head does not require to be large to be
in proportion to the body, and caput
just large enough to hold the brain is all
that is required.
IAN elephant, mastodon or mammoth
does not require u large brain. but they
all need massive head. Here You have
the upper and under layer rs in the
human skull, but the porous bone be-
tween Is magnified 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 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 honeycomb of
bone exposed to view. 1t was some time
before | could bring myself to believe
that it 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. 1t is much more
satisfactory in the results obtained to
take these specimens for models and re-
construct a skeleton from wood. 81 sup
pose, said the reporter, after prolonged
inspection Of these curiosities, Il sup
pose that human eyes never saw these
wonderful animals that roamed over the
country in such vast numbers SO 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 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 Ratchet head was once the
implement of some primeval warrior A
shoulder blade of the mastodon, a bone
comparatively thin, has been found
pierced, AS if by "A spear, and the spear
head has been found with it. The speas
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
ylncing 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
quarians who have spent so much time
in an endeavor to discover tho 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 facsimlles
OF these mounds. They We're prepared
by member of the Milwaukee His.
torical society. There is one which evil
IDENTIFY represents hawk or some similar
bird of prey with outstretched wings,
and there is another which evidently
portrays some sqnirrellike animal with
a remarkably long tail, and here YOU
have rs perfect "A representation of an
elephantlike animal as could well be con
trived
Now, had the mound builders been
As learned IN comparative anatomy as we ,
are. and had they reconstructed mas