Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-11-09
KEPT THOUSANDS OF YEARS
A Big Piece of Fat From Mammoth in
Alaska.
Preserved in Natural Cold Storage
How the Giant Animal Was Frozen
Gut In the Arctfcs.

DIR. Dali of the Smithsonian Institution,
during his recent visit to Alaska, secured
natural history specimen that was a prize
indeed. 1t was a bit of mammoth fat from
the actual adipose tissue of an animal that
had been dead for tens of thousands of
years!
Bodies of mammoths in a fresh state
have been dug up from time to time in
arctic Siberia, preserved in natural cold
storage since a period probably antedating
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
beast of this species have been found on
the American continent. 1t is easy to i'm
agine the scientific interest attaching to
the discovery.
Ages ago this mammoth died, under such
circumstances that its corpus was buried
in mud. AT about that time there was
great and permanent change in the tenn
perature of circumpolar regions. The eli
mate had been subtropical; 1T suddenly be-
came frtgid. The mamTloths were literally
frozen out" the last of the species perish
ing of cold. This particular individual,
frozen in bank of clay, had every pros
pect of keeping" for an indefinite period.
Discovered by Natives.
Hundreds of centuries later a 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 a native of exceptional courage
dug out one or two of them This required
more of that quality known in civilized
countries as nerve than might be i'm
agined, for strange monsters, however long
they may have been dead, are regarded
with SuperstitiouS awe by SavageS.
However. the natives finally summoned
courage enough to drag the remains of the
mammoth out of the clay bank piecemeal.
of 10 i'm al q hepD
SO well that fairly perfect cast of it was
found in the matrix. A quantity of fat,
which overlap the intestines, was obtained
and was used for greasing boats. DIR. Dali
secured a piece of it and fetched it back
to Washington for an exhibit
A MnmmOth's Molar Tooth.
In the Office of Osteologist Frederic A.
Lucas, at the National Museum, is a man.
moths molar tooth to which an odd story
is attached. 1t was got from a spring at
Paso Verde. in the country of the Papago
Indials S. Ever SO many centuries ago a
mammoth in its dying agonies sought that
spring for water and fell into it, too weak
to climb out. There its bones remain to
this lay, and the Indians believe that, ii
they were removed, the spring would dry
up OF course, such an event in that dry
region means the destruction of a village
Mastodcn bones, of course, are frequent
ly dug up in the United States. The mas
todon kind of elephant, but it did
not belong to the genus Elephas. The
mammoth did belong to that genus, being
known to modern science as elephas prim-
igenius. 1t often happens that farmers
plough up the osseous remains of mas
todons, particularly in reclaimed swamps,
where anciently the gigantic beasts be-
came n fred and died from sheer helpless
ness to get out. The tusks are commonly
found so far decomposed that the ivory
crumbles between the fingers.
The first mastodon ever dug up was
found in 1918. The remains of these ami
mails are by no means confined to the
United States they are discovered all over
the world, in Europe. Asia and Asia Minor
They were much thicker set than the mod
ern elephant. The lower jaw bone Of full
grown specimen weighs nearly 100 pounds.
The first mastodon bones that were dug
up were supposed to be those of giants of
an earlier epoch.