The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1907-02-27

venerable geologist of Oregon, in his
book called 1.-TWO Islands," says:
In the mammoth the student of ami
NAL life will always find the furthest
reach of mammalion development. The
Shoshone region had its full share OF
mammoth life, for scarcely a digging
of any Importance in eastern Oregon
Is without its list of mammoth fossils.
Whether one considers the size of the
individual, the length of it's life or the
time allotted to its geological horizon,
or the prodigious numbers to which it
reached, this great elephant stands 1T
the head of its column.
Elephant Degenerate.
I'm its presence our living elephant
Is but degenerate offspring, indicat-
Ing the rapid passing away of the race
There are scarcely any fossil beds of
this surface division but have their
mammoth teeth as trophies of their
excavations. The mammoth tooth is
not simply bulky mass, but an ad-
mirably constructed and complex piece
of work. The unit in its structure is
simple, a single cusp. The cusp is
united with other cusps and form
fiat plate. The cusps are cemented
together by layers of dentine, each pc
riod of the elephants life being ac-
corded a specific number of plates, so
that the first molar, the milk tooth, is
cut at three months old; the second, of
eight or nine plates is shed at six
years; the third, of eleven to thirteen
plates, is shed at nine years; the
fourth, of fifteen or sixteen plates, is
shed at twenty-five years; the fifth, of
seventeen to twenty plates, is shed at
fifty; the sixth, of twenty-five to twen-
ty-seven plates, is shed at hundred"
Scientists do not agree as to whether
man existed while the mammoth -four
ished. Relics of etchings by cave men
In southern France give the strongest
evidence that they were contemporane-
GUS. Since recorded history began, the
fossil ivory in commerce tells of the
extinct form of this life ages before
The supply coming out of Siberia has
been estimated at not less than one
hundred pairs oftusks year from an
Gent days to the present time.
The best known specimen of man.
moth on earth is at St. Petersburg.
The late James Dwight Dana, one of
Americas most famous scientists, IN
his Manual Of Geology has this to say
of this particular specimen: This an
Gent elephant was over twice the
weight of the largest modern species,
and nearly third larger. The body
was covered with reddish wool and
long black hair. One of the tusks
measured twelve, and one-half feet n
length; it was curved nearly into q
circle, though a little obliquely. At
the mouth of the Lena one of these
animals was found at the beginning
of this (nineteenth) century, frozen
and encased in ice. It measured six
teen feet four inches in length to the
extremity of the tail, exclusive of the
tusks, and nine feet four inches in
height. 1t retained the wool on its
hide, and was so perfectly preserved
that the flesh was eaten by the dogs"
Larger Specimens.
While the St. Petersburg specimen
Is the most perfect one known, it IS
not the largest. That honor belongs
to the state of Washington, though the
specimen itself is now the property Of
the Chicago Academy of Science. w.
X. Higley, Phi. D., while director of the
academy, prepared little monograph
on this skeleton, from which are
cleaned the following facts:
"The bones were found in the spring
of 1878 in the southwest part of Spo-
kane county, Washington, on the farm
of a Mr.. Coplen. The country is roll
ing prairie, about 2,100 feet above the
sea, extending from the Rocky mount
aims to the Cascade range. The water
courses are timbered, the rest treeless.
The soil is rich black lean, with
white clay subsoil Hangman's creek,
about thirty-five feet wide, runs
through this part of the country into
the Spokane river, which is tribu-
tary of the Columbia. The prairie is
an excellent grain land. and in the
wild state produces grass thirty inches
high.
were found on the upland in a marshy
hollow, about fifty feet in diameter,
formed by spring oozing out of the
black mud, whose waters flowed off
in a narrow valley to Hangman's creek,
about three-fourths of a mile distant.
The bones were exposed while ditch
ing in order to drain the spot"
The completed and mounted skeleton
of the magnificent Spokane mammoth,
or elephas primigenius of the scien-
fists, stands thirteen feet high, and if
allowances are made for the grisly
cushion under the feet and for the
fleshy and heavy name on the Shout
ders, the living animal would have
measured fourteen feet in height.
The skeleton of Jumbo (elephas At
ricanus) is ten feet three inches; War
ren's masterdon giganteus, at Boston,
is; eleven feet, and the Hauser elephas
indicus at Northwestern university.
Evanston, ILL.,, is ten feet eight inches.
The labor organizations of Canada
are working hard to defeat bill
which has been introduced in the
Canadian senate. which if enacted in
to law will exclude from participation
in labor disputes in the Dominion all
representatives of international I'M
lens who do not reside in Canada. 1t
is said that the bill grew out of the
street car strike at Hamilton, in which
President MahOn and cthar officials