The San Francisco call., 1904-02-02
INSTRUCTIVE STUDIES
By lNOIEDAfEN AND
ZOFfEN

mounted, which would make him
about fourteen feet high when. a5ive.
1.-THE tuskss Of the mamlpoth were
enormous. Those .of : one recently
found in Texas, and now mounted IN
the American Museum of Natural
History in. New York. City, measure
thirteen feet and ten inches, and
WOULD weigh 200 pounds apiece. The
fnaanmoth had a trunk like the -ele-
chant and was covered with three
suits Of hasr--the. largest consisting Of
rough. black bristles eighteen inches
in length. the next a coat OF cloSe-set
hair from nine to ten $nches long, and
underneath all a. soft, reddish wool
about five inches long. forming a COW
ering which would shed water and
enable the animal to stand any
amount of arctic cold, % g
At the present time the elephant
is limited to Southern Asia and to
Central and So.utherE Africa. - The
Asiatic species. however, differs in
many respects frelh the. African. The
african ele.hant has Iaueh larger ears
than the Asiat5c; so that they. COM
'pletely cover the SHOULDER 9 when
thrown back, SonetinGes being three
and. a half feet long. and two and
half. wide. It's teeth are:also diff
ferent from. those of the Asiatic spe-
cies. and lis tusks heaEjer. o But IN
both cases sTie tusks are. much smaller
than are those of the. mammath.
The elephant first '&ppears E1 the
Middle Tertiary deposits of Northern
India From that center, still occapied
by the SPECIES. it seems to have spread
northward TO- the limits of the Aorth-
ssrn Hemisphere: In. the later Ter
1iary period: a SPECIES. rs found fossil
throughout Europe, while still later
the snecies 1fioWTcs as the mammoth,
.ey, in technical terms, Elepkas primi-
genius. was, as already said, spread
ia great numbers over. .Northern: Asia
and North. .AnieriGa -.as'. fag south as
she Gulf of.Mesiico, and all over Eu-
rope north of the Mediterranean. In
i'these regions Ise survives the glacial
period and fingered. Until some time
after the. advent oS ..@naIr.
In Siberia. the :mammoth wandered
down toe. valley of ali the large rivers
funnihSs into the::krctfc Ocean. where 50
:nany Of. $Iiem '9eft their .carcasses that
for centuries their :.tusks have formed
most impcrta,nt export to tie. 5yory
narkets:of the world. During the years
flS72-7S as many.as 27lQ mammoth. tusks.
weighing ec6m .14e 90 160. pounds each,
making a total of 200 TONS. were entered
at the London docks. Sup TO the present
time the: Wary hunters. in Northern ST.
IBERIA come back. heavily laden with this
Taiuable.:material: and lit forms a CON
I'ntant means of .barter:with China: The
I-long string of camels. which carry tea
from China. across. the desert OF Cobb
to Siberia return. laden in no small de-
gree w8th.s fresh :. manam3oth .tusks,
brought. uB* from. the. mouth of the
'Yeniseis :tiie Lena ;a3nd the :Indigirka
l:River: - -:
named. Benkendorf saw one of these
huge aniHlals just as: it'was. Uncovered
in the frozen hank of the .Indigirka
I:River. dt.ring.. a flood: Ia ITS stomach
were tile: chewed. fragments of the
shoots and cones of $f and pine trees.
showing :upon WHAT the aniEfal' Eyed
SO vivid is his. description that it is
worth &hi&e to REPRODUCE it,. -
Picture TO. yourself. an elephant aSvith
3 a body severed with: thick far, about
s13. feet in height .an;i .15.fn length, with
tusks s feet Iong, thick, and curying
outward at their. ends; "a Stout trunk
of 6'feet in length, colossal limbs of ~
ffeet in thickness and tail, naked up
20 the end, which gas covered. with
thick tufty hair. The animal was fat
and well grown death mad overtaken
him in the flllness. of his powers His
parehment:like;' large. naked ears lay
: turned up over. the head; about the
! shoulders. and. the. hack he had. stiff
hair, apout a. foot in length, like a
name. The long outer hair was deep
/ brown and 'coarsely.roo'ted. The top of
the head looked. so wild. and so pen
etrated with pitch; that it 'resenrbIed
the rind of an old oak tree. On the
sides it was cleaner. and. under the
outer hair there. appeared everywhere
a wool. very soft, warm and thick and
of a falIew-brown color. THE giant
was wen protected against the cold
The whole appearance Of the animal
was fearfully strange and wild It had
not the shape of our present elenha1fts.
] AS comJaT6d With our. IndiaIf 'ele-
/ plants, its head was rough. the. brain
/ base low and narrow, but the trunk
and mouth were .inueh larger The
teeth were very powerful. .Our':ele-
phant is an awkward animal, but. com
pared with this. mammoth it is an Ara
bian steed to a coarse, ugly dray' horse
I could not 'divest myself of a feeling
of fear as 1 approached the. head; the
broken. widely open eyes gave the ami
NAL an appearance Of life, ..as though
it might move n d moment and de-
stroy us with a roar. The sbad
smell Of the body warned us that it
was time to save what we could. and
the swelling flood, too, bade us hasten:
But I had the stomach separ-
ated and bought on one side. It. was
well filed and the contents were in
structive and well preserved. The prin-
cipal were young shoots Of the fir and
pine; a quantity of young fir cones, also
/ in a chewed state were mixed with the
moss"
Evidence that man and the mammoth
were for a considerable time contem-
| poraries comes from various quarters