Daily camera. [volume] (Boulder, Colo.) 1891-1928, 1900-08-11
MAMMOTH REMAINS.
Reported Finding Of Skull - Great
Sise IN san Mateo Ceunty,
California.

The evidences of life belonging to
the preglacial age are rare in Califor-
MIA; still q specimen has been discov-
cred near the coast in San Mateo coun-
ty, if the statement contained in q
Halfmoon bay dispatch may be relied
upon. A well-preserved skull Of the
mammoth is said to have been recently
taken out of the bed of Pilarcitos creek
by some boys who were employed in
hauling sand at a point about a mile
east of Halfmoon bay. The skull is
reported to be about five feet in length
and portions of the tusks. "a foot long
are attached to it and are six inches
in diameter at the junction with the
bone. These extend into the cerebral
cavity. Bones of the mammoth were
also found in the neighborhood some
years ago. sf&
The discovery of these remains, says
the San Francisco Chronicle, is no
proof that the mammoth ever wan
dered at large during life in these parts!
The evidences are, Of course; indisput-
able that great herds of these pregla-I
cfal beasts pastured in the valley OF the
Yukon and on the shores of Siberia.
and the Behring sea. During some VIC,
lent convulsion of nature great ice
sheets enveloped the far north, and
many of their carcasses have been
preserved therein up to the present
time. hides, hair, flesh, bones and tusks
b, ing found in perfect condition. Mines
OF mammoth ivory were proftably
worked in Alaska long before the terri
tory became q field for the search of
g. Id. These mammoth remains have
been discovered in the placcrs of the
k!ondike and at other points in the
I: oxen banks Of the Yukon and its trib-
u:.ries There would be nothing i'm
probable in the assumption that the
mammoth remains now unearthed on
T larcitos creek near the shores of
FaIfmoon bay had been deposited at
Il point where found by stranded ice
tlre brought down from the far north
al some remote period by the ocean
current which sweeps down the west.
el II coast OF the continent.
The only evidences of the mammoth
lie which once inhabited the earth
found anywhere in the vicinity were
II e footprints Of the mammoth slotl,
which were uncovered in the Carson
(Nev) sandstone quarries. Wyoming
is the most fertile field on this CONT
pi Mt. outside of Alaska. for the fossil
?; mains Of the gigantic animals which
existed here in past geological ages.
TIE University of Wyoming has Sc
erred from the sandstones of that
state the largest and most perfect and
G. mplete collection of these fossils in
existence
II any OF these gigantic animals ever
had their habitat in California. the
changes which ice and flood and other
AGENCIES have since produced have
swept away all traces of them. The
Calaveras skull of prehistoric man
which Bret Harte immortalized in verse
b, longs to the world of fiction, not of
fact. Even though we are short on
fossil remains. it might not require
much straining Of the Imagination to
assume that the diminutive horned
toad Of the southern counties is the
descendant Of the horned
d !nosaur, which ranged from 12 to IS
feet in length and whose fossil remains
have been excavated from the plains
of Laramie, or that the nimble lizard
found everywhere in the state is the
direct descendant of the gigantic
of the reptilian age.