Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-01-08
HUNTING IN GOTHAM.
Indian Legends Of the Mastodon-
Bones Buried in the Boys.

From the Four-Track News.
The traveller passing through Orange and
Ulster counties, New York, on the west
side of the Hudson, IS favored with a num-
Der of views that are celebrated for their
variety and rustic charm. They make a
strong appeal to the artist, but their appeal
to the hunter and naturalist Is still greater,
for this is one of the most famous ranges
of the huge hairy elephants. once so widely
dispersed in temperate North America
Here they were to be seen In long lines and
numerous herds. vending their way from
the breezy uplands where they rested in
the shade to the richer bottom lands where
their favortte food abounded, and even now
as we pass we may be certain that within
few miles of the train scores, maybe
thousands. of these monsters still lying In
the shade, butt is the shade of their
tombs. Each of these long, fiat boys or low
meadows whose place and plan tell us that
1t was once a lake. has probably lying in
it's mud a number of the great skeletons
that were such a puzzle to the older world
of science. Many hundreds of times the
farmers of the region, while dftchtng; the
old huckleberry swamps, have come across
some big, brown buried logs. which. on be-
ing dug out, were found to be the bones of
a mastodon. Their numbers must have been
very great, for We find their bones more
numerous than those of some animals we
know to have been abundant. Prof. Lucas
informs us that maStodon skeletons are
much more numerous in our museums to-
day than are those of the African elephant,
and that In the season of digging mot a
week passes without one or more masto-
dons being unearthed"
But what killed them? Certainly not man.
They odd not go the way of the buffalo.
Some natural force, or some enemy that
seemed puny beside them. We cannot even
guess who or what, but we know from OBJ
low hot nc md n
very indirect circumstance may operate to
save or to kill species. 1t Is possible that
a gadfly may have been responsible for the
destruction of the American native wild
horse, that was a contemporary of the
mammoth; so also a new kind OF plant life
drifting in, bad habit rampant, may have
doomed the elepIhantine race.
A more interesting question Is, DID man
see the maStodon?" 1t seems moraIiy GER
tain that he did.
The evidence is that the mastodon lived
here very recently and man was certainly
here in very ancient times, that their
epochs, therefore, greatly oyerlapped.
There is an Indian legend that long ago
race OF shaggy monsters was found In the
woods of the upper Hudson valley. They
were so big and powerful that they had no
fear OF the red mans weapons, so his vii
lagos were in daily danger. But the Great
Spirit, In response to the prayer of his
children, came IN person with his mighty
bow and slew the hugh giants one by one
except the biggest of all; he escaped toward
the northwest, to the land Of the Great
Lakes. So - s
There are not lacking those who see In
this nothing more than a memory OF the
days whom the buffalo was found commonly
In the country where the city OF Buffalo
STANDS, but the general opinion Is that the
size, the anvuinefabiiity and the dangerous
ness Of the legendary creature Identifies IT
with the unastodon.
There are elephant shapes on pipes and
on pottery that probably date from prehis-
toric days. and there " at least one very
good drawing OF q mastodon. It Is known
as the Lenape stone from Pennsylvania 1t
was found near Doylestown, Pennsylvania.
In 1872, and u stone gorget or breast piece
OF q necklace deliberately decorated with
drawing Of q mastodon being hunted by
men with bows and spears. The only doubt