The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1920-04-15
One Of Mature $ Mysteries.
From the San francisco Chronicle.

Whenever he bones of a masodan or a marnmot are unearthed, a
frequent occurrence in many parts OF the United States M Canada. the event
raises he question why these powerful animals, 81 well equipped to survive
and so widely distributed throughout the northern hemisphere. disappeared
from The ace OF he earth will n o record in history that n nan eve sw
n alive. Though written history has II such record, it is certain that
man was contemporary with the mammoth, for there have been found in
Europe several paaeofthic carvings on bon depicting this giant OF the
northern forests But he disappeared from Europe so long before written
history began hat even the tradition of him has vanished. So far, science
has n o answer TO the question. We nov that the mammoth lived Ill over
northern Europe, Asia and North America. We know precisely what he
looked like; W e know the very color of MS hair and eve what grasses ne
ate, for several Of his species have been found entire, frozen in tn ice boys
of northern Siberia. u " e d. lot know and cannot conceive why he
vanished SO completely.
1t would be easy to reasont that in Europe increase of population crowded
The mammoth gut. Bt apparently lie died n unpeopled forests OF
Siberia n the empty wastes of North America $ easy a he did IN
rance M GERMANY. he wa a powerful ANNA d hme Iarser, 'Mn w, me
elephant too tronE to be overcome by the carnivorous animals If his day.
TN northern cold,a n n was tua to a diet O ne very same grasses
MOSES ard sMc:h ard ":Mc@ .wgs that s-c" in Siberia today. II used to
teh us once prevaHed III tn tar north came as me result OK sohe WIZ" to
cataclysm. Ever if that could De accepted it would have nothing TO d with
fully in these regions long after thu climate hd become what it is 10
The evidence of his thick co and the frozen food fornd in his frozenb oy
% hat
The mystery Is all thu greater because re know SO much Of thu great
creature We ave found him in modern times so completely preserve, reserved
are we'll acquainted with the taste of mammouth flesh. This is not SO
marvellous as it may appear at first sight. Much of northern Siberia is
natnraI ressruatiiy Nd in ranw ases the hos rroze m In winter to he
DAYS avs esnossa IL This has heen the msual course of events in III case of
bog is underlain by glacier, Just as thu great forest about the base of Mt
pete mammoth found on the Bereskovari river in 1900. The position of the
frozen monser told thu story precisely. His body lay in he crevasse just
as he died where h e fell, with his broker hind leg doubled under him and
the grasses he had been eating still between his teeth. And there he lay
in cold storage for perhaps so 900 years while civilization afer civilization
rose blossomed and faded away, until in this day the shifting of the river
uncovered his head and a scientific man can nj dug him out.
begged down or fell into evasse Their must have been, first and last,
immense number of them. shiploads Of their teeth W beer dredged up
by trawlers in the North sea There's arc islands off the Siberian coast
wholly made Vi of sand and mammoth bones tina nay been swept ut by
the rivers. an mammoth ivory is n mas Keen for centuries a regular
of commerce. But why they vanished % completely as living things
We aren not ever biz to guess.