The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1895-12-28
PIECE OF A MAMMOTH,
A Valuable Relic In the Smith.
oouian Institution.
It b Only . hit Of Fat from the Dody
Of IN Auiuel That Has Been
Dead for Thousand
Of Years

LIZ OAAl, VI Vic 0AAAAtaAHSAA0AA AA9SAvA-
tion, during his recent visit to Alaska
secured natural history specimen that
was q prize indeed. Itwas a bit of mann
moth fat, from the actual adipose tissue
of an animal that had been dead for tens
of thousands of years.
Bodies of mammoths in fresh state
have been dug up from time to time in
arctic Siberia, preserved in natural cold
storage since a period probably ante
dating the first appearance of man on
the earth. That is an old story; but
this is the first known instance in which
the soft parts Of a beast of this species
have been found on the American conti-
nent. It is easy to imagine the scien-
tific interest attaching to the discovery.
Ages ago this mammoth died, under
such circumstances that his corpus was
buried in mud. At about that time
there was great and permanent
change in the temperature of circum-
polar regions. The climate had been
subtropical; it suddenly became frigid.
The mammoths were literally frozen
out" the last of the species perishing OF
cold. This particular individual. frozen
in a bank of clay, had every prospect OF
excepting" for an indefinite period.
Hundreds of centuries later q stream
flowing through an Alaskan valley
tackled the clay bank referred to and
began to cut it away. AT length some
big bones stuck out, and native of ex-
ceptional courage dug out one or two
of them. This required more OF that
quality known in civilized countries as
nerve" than might be imagined, for
strange monsters, however long they
may have been dead, are regarded with
superstitious awe by savagcs.
However, the natives finally sum
moned courage enough to drag the re.
mains of the mammoth out of the clay
bank piecemeal. The body of the ami.
NAL had been preserved SO well that
fairly perfect cast of twas found in the
matrix. A quantity Of fat, which over.
Law the intestines, was obtained and was
used for greasing boats. DR.. Dali Sc
cured piece of it, and fetched it back
to Washington for an exhibit.
In the Office of Osteologist Frederic
A.. Lucas, at the National museum, is
mammoth's molar tooth, to which an
odd story is attached. twas got from q
spring at Paso Verde, in the country OF
the Papago Indians. Ever SO many CEN
turies ago q mammoth in its dying ag'
onies sought that spring for water and
fell into it, too weak to climb out. There
- IL nd
Indians believe that, if they were re
moved, the spring would dry up. O1
course. such an event in that regioI
means the destruction of a village.
Mastodon bones, of course, are fire
quently dug up in the United States
The mastodon was kind of elephant
but it did not belong to the genus Ele
phas. The mammoth did not belong t
that genus, being known to moderr
science as elephas primi-genus. L
often happens that farmers plow up thu
csseous remains of mastodons, particu
larly in reclaimed swamps, where an
GENTLY the gigantic beasts becam'
mired and died from sheer helplessnes:
to get out. The tusks are commonly
found so far decomposed that the ivory
crumbles between the fingers.
The first mastodon ever dug up wa
found in 1913. The remains of these ami
mails are by no means confined to thu
! United States; they are discovered al
over the world. They are much thicke
set than the modern elephant. III
lower jawbone of a full-grown speci
men weighs nearly 100 pounds. Th'
first mastodon bones that were dug VI
were supposed to be those OF giants 0
an earlier epoch.-Washington Star.