The Lebanon express. (Lebanon, Linn County, Or.) 1887-1898, 1896-01-16
PIECE OF A MAMMOTH.
A Valuable Relic in the Smith.
sonian Institution.


DR.. Dali, of the Smithsonian institu.
tion, during his recent visit to Alaska
secured a natural history specimen that
was prize indeed. ltwas a bit of mann
moth fat, from the actual alipose 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 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 beast of this species
have been found on the American conti-
nent. 1t is easy to imagine the scien-
titic 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; tsuddenly became frigid.
The mammoths were literally frozen
out" the last of the species perishing of
cold. This particular individual, frozen
in bank of clay, had every prospects, of
'keeping" for an indefinite period.
Hundreds of centuries later q stream
flowing through an Alaskan valley
2ckled the clay bank referred to and
gan to cut it away. AT length some
ig bones stuck out. and a native of ex-
ceptional courage dug out one or two
nf 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 savages.
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 itwas found in the
i1atrix. A quantity of fat, which over
ay the intestines, was obtained and was
used for greasing boats. DR.. Dali Sc
anred a piece of it, and fetched it back
Washington Tor an exhibit.
In the office of 0steologist Frederic
lucas, at the National museum, is a
immoth's molar tooth, to which an
IA story is attached. Itwas got from a
ng at paso Verde, in the country of
papago Indians. Ever so many cen
4lies ago a mammoth in its dying ag-
Hics sought that spring for water and
lbintoit, too weak to climb out. There
ZONES remain to this day, and the
aiIians believe that, if they were re-
Aad, tlle spring would dry up. OF
se, sueh an event in that region
nus H. obstruction of a village.
Aiastodon bones, of course, are fire.
q.@Atly 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 to
that genus, being known to modern
cience as elephas primi-genus. It !
often happens that farmers pillow up the
osseous remains of mastodons, particu-
larly in reclaimed swamps, where an
ciently the gigantic beasts became
mired and died from sheer helplessness
to get out. The tusks are commonly
found so far decomposed that the ivory
crnmbles between the fingers.
The first mastodon ever dug up was
found in 1913. The remains Of these ami
mails are by no means confined to the
United States; they are discovered all
over the world. They are much thicker
set than the modern elephant. The
lower jawbone of a full-grown speci-
men weighs nearly 100 pounds. The
first mastodon bones that were dug up
were supposed to be those of giants of
an earlier epoch. Washington Star.