Golden Valley chronicle. (Beach, Billings County, N.D.) 1905-1916, 1908-03-06
HUGE MhMMOTHs ENGASEO N ICE

an entire carcass so perfectly pre-.
served that the flesh when thawed out
was eagerly devoured by wolves and
bears. This skeleton, with portions
of the skin and ligaments, is now
mounted in the museum of st. Peters
burg. It is nine feet high and
16 feet long.
In 1916 a young Russian engineer
named Benkendorf saw one Of these
huge animals just as it was uncovered
in the frozen bank of the Indigirka
river during food. In it's stomach
were chewed fragments Of the shoots
and cones Of fir and pine trees, show
ing upon what the animal lived. So
vivid is his description that 1t is
worth while to reproduce it.
Picture to yourself an elephant
with a body covered with thick fur.
about 13 feet in height and Is in
length, with tusks eight feet long,
thick, and curving outward at their
ends, a stout trunk of six feet in
length, colossal limbs of 11s feet i'll
thickness, and tail, naked up to the
end, which was covered with thick
fluffy hair. The animal was fat, and
we'll grown; death had overtaken him
in the fullness of his powers. His
parchs7eht-like, large, naked ears lay
turned up over his head; about the
shoulders and the back he had stiff
hair, about foot in length, like
name. The long outer hair was deep
brown, and coarsely rooted. The top
Of the head looked so wild and so
penetrated with pitch that it resem-
bled the rind of an oak tree. On the
sides it was cleaner and under the out
er hair there appeared everywhere a
wool, very soft, warm and thick. and
of a fallow-brown color. The giant
was we'll protected against the cold.
"The whole appearance of the ami
NAL was fearfully strange and wild.
1t had not the shape of our present
elephants. AS compared with our
Indian elephants, it's head was rough,
the brain base low and narrow, but
the trunk and mouth were much
larger. The teeth We're very power.
full. Our elephant is an awkward ami -
NAL, but compared with this mammoth
it is an Arabian steed to coarse,
| ugly dray horse. l could not divest
| myself of feeling of fear as I ap-
preached the head; the broken, widely
open eyes gave the animal an appear
ance Of life, as though it might move
in moment and destroy lis with a
roar. :. The bad smell of the body
warned us that it was time to save
what we could, and the swelling flood,
too, bade us hasten. But had the
stomach separated and brought on one
side. It was we'll filled, and the con-
tents instructive and we'll preserved.
The principal were young shoots of
the fir and pine; quantity of young
fir cones, also in chewed stats, were
mixed with the moss"
Still more recently, even as late as
1902. a complete skeleton was found
on the banks of the Beresovka river iii
northeastern Siberia. The entire skin
as we'll as the skeleton of this has
been brought to st. Petersburg, and
after being stuffed has been erected
in the position in which it was found.
Evidently the animal was browsing on
the bank Of frozen precipice, where
the footing was more insecure than lie
supposed. While he was stetching
out for a tempting morsel of herb
age the foundation gave away beneath
him and he slid backward, landing in
| IryhS nI h =
! tricate himself, and was there buried
by fresh avalanches from the preci.
pice and by the accumulation of sedi-
ment from the stream and frozen up
for preservation.
The fresh condition of these skele.
tons in Siberia and Alaska; together
with the occurrence of skeletons in
connection with flint instruments,
gives evidence that the animal contin-
ued to survive after the advent of
man, so as to be for some time q con-
temporary of the human race on both
continents, points to the recent ex-
tinctfon Of the animal, and raises the
very interesting question as to what
causes could have led to this result.
Evidence that man and the nam.
moth were for considerable time
contemporaries comes from various
quarters. In Siberia IL feet below the
surface of a cliff which stands 13G
feet above the present level of the
River Obi, skeleton of q mammoth
was found, associated with numerous
flint implements, indicating the pres
ence of man. while the large homes If
the animal were split in the usual
way of the savages for extracting the
marrow.