Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1915-12-07


There is positive evidence that man was
already a dweller on the earth in the
Gays of the mammoth and the mastodon,
hut they have gene into extinction while
he not only remains. but has made enor-
NOUS advances in his physical and men
tsl development and the conditions Of
LIS life.
In certain way the mastodon stands
typically for prehistoric America, and
tho mammoth for prehistoric Europe.
Mammoth remains have been found in
America, and within the area OF the
United States. and similarly. mastodon
remains have been found in the old world
Hut broadly speaking, the special home
OF the mastodon, so far as his relics
show. was in this country while that OF
the mammoth was In Europe and Asia.
The relations of the cave men Of
Europe with the mammoth have been
clearly revealed by archaeological ex-
plorations, and pictures of the huge
beast. drawn by the hands Of men who
met him, and probably had fought with
him, have been found In the prehistoric
caverns OF France. The discovery of
the frozen bodies Of Inanmoths In the
10y marshes of Siberia has enabled us to
compare these drawings made by our an
Client forebears with the real forms of
the creatures that they were intended
to represent. and the lkenesses are
found to be astonlshingly distinct.
Evidently those early men, clad only
in skin garments and armed only with
spears and darts. pointed with flint and
staghorn, were not afraid to encounter
these immense beasts In hand-to-hand
conflict, and were able to slay them.
To kill mammoth, however they must
have employed other means than the
rude weapons just mentioned. Probably
they used some kind of q trap. as the
natives of Africa did In capturing ele-
plants before the white man came with
his guns. The details of the drawings
show that the cave men understood the
anatomy Of their gigantic game.
There Is very little doubt that early
man met the mastodon In America just
as he met the mammoth in Europe. but
the evidence IL by no means SO abundant.
The first human Inhabitants OF this Goa
tinent left but insignificant marks Of
their presence compared with the innum-
cradle traces OF their possible contem-
' porarles on the other side Of the At
y iantic. This arises largely from the diff
& ference of local conditions.
It SO happened that In those parts OF
: Europe, particularly France, where men
and mammoths met. extensive, dry cav
lerns existed forming admirable and Sc
- cure dwelling places for primitive men.
- and here they made relatively large set
Elements and dwelt for many successive
'Nrenerations. On our side Of the ocean
there were no centers of population
comparable. for instance, with the val
ley of the vezere in France, with its
bordering caverns and rock shelters,
which furnished kind OF natural
metropolis for the Gave men. The pre-
historic Americans were' evidently less
settled in their habits.
(, But the mastodons assembled in chosen
places II the men did not. They seem
10 have had a prediction for marshy
places. in which, with their huge, un-
wieldy bodies, they became helplessly
mired. The skeletons OF mastodons were
first found in ancient swamps west OF
The Hudson river In New York
There is place. some twenty miles
south of st. Louis. Mo-, called Kimms-
wick, where bones representing several
hundred mastodons have been discovered;
Z at the foot OF bluff near the Junction
Of two little streams. 1t seems probable
says Frederic A. Lucas, the director OF
the American Museum of National His
tory. In his book on Animals of the
Past" that, in the days when these
Z streams were larger the spring floods
swept down the bodies Of animals that
z had persisted during the winter, to ground
. in an eddy beneath the bluff ''or. as the
: place abounds In springs of sulphur and
salt water. it may be that this was where
Tho animals assembled during cold
> weather"
The cause Of the extinction OF the mas
todons and mommoths remains to be dis
covered.