The times., 1901-06-23
GREATEST OF ALL BEASTS
Some Points Concerning the Man,
moth of Antiquity.
A Relic of the Arctic Regions-siber-
ian Peasants Regarded Him as a
Gigantic MoIe-PrObabIy Never So
Large as History Painted Him.

ian Peasants Regarded Him as "a
Large as History Painted Him.
THE Truth About the Mammoth" is
the title of a monograph, written by Mr..
Frederick A. Lucas of the Smithsonian
Institution. and published by the Institu-
tion a reply to a multitude of ques-
tion letters addressed to the curators,
which Were inspired by a realistic fiction
story published in the October, 1900.
number of a magazine, and entitled THE
| Killing of the Mammoth" The story,
while pure fiction, read like reality, and
deceived so many people that the editor
! of the magazine and the men of science
of the Smithsonian Institution, when the
author had located the remains of the
beast of his fancy, were beset with ques-
tions concerning the mammoth and to
settle wagers and bets. No greater proof
of the success of the story could be had
than was evidenced by the widespread
| interest which the article inspired, and
| so numerous were the requests for infor-
| nation at the Institution that it was
| practically impossible to answer all the
| letters So Mr.. Lucas was asked to tell
| what is known of the mammoth, and
! the Smithsonian Institution would pub
! lish it in monograph, for public dis
tribution. What Mr.. Lucas has to say
| is, in brief, as follows:
About three centuries ago, in 1886,
Russian, one Ludloff by name, described
| some bones belonging to what the Tartars
| called 'Mamautu; later on, Blumenbach
| pressed the common name into scientinc
use as 'Mammut,' and Cuvier galltcised
| this into 'Mammouth, whence by an easy
| transition we get our familiar mammoth
We are so accustomed to use the word
to describe anything of remarkable size
that it would be only natural to suppose
that the name mammoth was given to
the extinct elephant because of its ex-
| traordinary bulk. Exactly the reverse of
this is true. however, for the word came
to have it's present meaning because the
original possessor of the name was a
huge animal. The Siberian peasants call
ed the creature mamautu,' or ground
dweller,' because they believed it to be
gigantic mole. passing its life beneath
the ground ana perishing when by any
accident it saw the light. The reasoning
that led to this belief was very simple
and the logic very good; no one had ever
seen a live mamautu, but there were
plenty of bones lying at or near the sur
| face; consequently if the animal did not
live above the ground, it must dwell be
low.
To-day nearly everyone knows that the
mammoth was a sort of big, hairy ele-
phant, now extinct, and nearly everyone
has a general idea that it lived in the
north. There is someh uncertainty as to
whether the mammoth was a mastodon,
or the mastodon a mammoth, and there
is great deal of misconception as to the
size and abundance of this big beast.
1t may be said in passing that the mas
todon Is only a second or third cousin of
the mammoth, but that the existing ele-
phant of Asia is very near relative, GER
tainly near as first cousin, possibly
very great grandson. Popularity, the
mammoth IS supposed to have been
colossus somewhere from twelve to TWEEN
ty feet in height, beside whom modern
elephants would seem insignificant; but
as trout lose much in dressing so
mammoths shrink in measuring and
while there were doubtless Jumbos among
them in the way of individuals of excep-
tional magnitude, the majority were
doubtless under Jumbo's size. The only
mounted mammoth skeleton in this coun-
try-that in the Chicago Academy of Sci
ences-is one of the largest, the thigh
bone measuring five feet one inch in
bo; and as Jumbo stood eleven feet high
the rule of three applied to this thigh
bone would give to the living animal a
height of thirteen feet eight inches. The
height of this specimen is given as thir-
teen feet in its bones, with an estimate
of fourteen feet In its clothes; but as the
skeleton is obviously mounted altogether
too high, it is pretty safe to say that
thirteen feet is good fair allowance for
the height of this animal when alive. AS
for the majority of mammoths, they
would not average more than nine or ten
feet high. Sir Samuel Baker tells US that
he has seen plenty of wild African ele-
plants that would exceed Jumbo by a foor
or more, and while this must be accepted
with caution, since, unfortunately, ne ne
elected to put a tape line on them yet
Mr. Thomas Baines did measure a speci-
men twelve feet high. This, coupled with
Sir Samuel's statement, indicates that
there is not so much difference between
the mammoth and the elephant as there
might be-
There were other elephants than the
mammoth. and some that exceeded him
in size; but even the largest cannot posi-
lively be asserted to have exceeded a
height of thirteen feet, and 1t is greatly
TO be doubted if any of them could have
tossed a 25-fOot log over his shoulder.
Tusks offer convenient terms of compari-
son, and those of an average fully grown
mammoth are from to 10 feet in length:
those of the famous st. Petersburg speci-
men and those from the huge specimen in
Chicago measuring. respectively, 9 feet
inches and feet inches. So far as the
writer is aware, the largest tusks act
ually measured are two from Alaska, one
u feet 10 inches long, weight unknown,
reported by Mr.. Jay Beach, and another
IL feet long, weighing 200 pounds, noted
by Mr.. II. l.. Brevig.
For our knowledge of the external ap-
pearance of the mammoth we are in
debted to the more or less entire exam
pies which have been found at various
times in Siberia, but mainly to the noted
specimen found in 1799 near Lena, en-
bedded in the ice, where it had been re-
posing, so geoiogists tell u.s. anywhere
from 10000 to $4,000 years. How the crea-
ture gradually thawed out of its icy
tomb, and the tusks were taken by the
discoverer and sold for ivory; how the
dogs fed upon the flesh in summer, while
bears and wolves feasted upon 1t in win
ter; how the animal was within an ace
of being utterly lost to science, when at
the last moment the mutilated remains
were rescued by Mr.. Adams, is an old
story, often told and retold Suffice it to
say that, besides the bones enough of
the beast was preserved to tell us exact
ly what was the covering of this ancient
-I,,, f+