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Show l Mysteries of Nature " ) By G. Frederick Wright, A. M. JJL D. ;i . HUGE MAMMOTHS ENCASED IN ICE. Tho mammoth Is an extinct spectea of elephant which wna formerly : ; spread alt over Europe, northorn Asia,, i a-d North America as far south as, ) Mexico. In slzo ho was somewhat - II larger than tho elephant. Whereas W Jumbo stood 11 feet high, tho mam- V moth skeleton recently set up In the p museum of tho Chicago Academy of Sclencoa stands 13 foot as mounted, which would mako him about 14 feet high when alive. Tho tUBks of tho , mammoth were enormous. Those cf f' ono recently found In Texas, and now mounted In tho American Museum of Natural History In New York city, ji measuro 13 feet and ton Inches, and f would weigh 20Q pounds apiece. The f mammoth had a trunk like' suits of :; hair the largest consisting of rough, black bristles 18 Inches In length, tho next a coat of close-sot hair from nlno to ten Inches long, and under- i neath all a soft, reddish wool, about flvo Inches long, forming a covering which would shed wator, and enable : tho animal to stand anv amount of arctic cold. ,' ( At the present tlmo the elephant ., Is limited to southern Asia and to con- ;j , tral and southern Africa. Tho Asl- i atlc species, however, differ In many respects from the African. Tho Afrl- t can elephant has much larger ears than the Asiatic; so that thoy coin- ulotely cover tho shoulder when thrown back, sometimes being throo and one-half feet wide. Its teeth are 1 ' also different from thoso of tho AbI- I atlc species, and Its tusks heavier. But In both cases tho tusks are much smaller than are those of tho mammoth. mam-moth. The elephant Ilrst appears In the Middle Tertiary deposits of northorn India. From that center, still occupied occu-pied by tho species, It seoms to have spread outward to tho limits of tho j northern hemisphere. In tho Inter Tortlary period a species is found fos-nil fos-nil throughout Europo, whilo still later tho species known as tho mammoth, 1i or, In technical terms, olephas prim- Igonlus, was, as already said, spread 1 In great numbers over northern Asia and North America as far Bouth aB the Gulf of Mexico, and all over Europo north of tho Mediterranean. In thoso regions ho survived tho glacial perl- ' od, and lingered until Bome time. aft--hf -er tho advent of man, i - , In Siberia tho mnmmoth wandored i -down tho valley of all tho largo rlv- j , ers running Into tho Arctic Ocean, ,, where bo many of them left tholr car- I cassea that for centuries their tusks tiave formed a most Important export ex-port to tho Ivory markots of tho ' world. During tho years 1872-73 as C many as 2,770 mammoth tusks, weigh- Ing from 140 to 160 pounds each, mak- F ' Ing a total of 200 tons, were entered k at tho London docks. Up to tho prea- h. cnt tlmo tho ivory hunters in northorn B Siberia como back heavily laden with this valuablo material, and it forms n constant means of barter with China. ' Tho long Btrlng of camels which carry !"' tea from China across the Desert of , Gobi to Siberia return laden in no ft small degree with fresh mammoth tusks, brought up from tho mouth of I the Yenisei, tho Lena and tho Indl- ' glrka rlvor. j Ono of the most romarkablo facts i concerning tho distribution of tho ( mammoth is brought to light in the i discovery of their skeletons in great numbers upon tho New Siborian Is-lands, Is-lands, far out beyond tho mouth of $ the Lena river, and of similar dlscov- ;r cries on tho Prlbilof islands in Bering j- Soa. On tho shores of Alaska north I of tho Yukon river the bones of tho t mammoth are very numerous in tho If frozen soil. So fresh aro the romatns that, as tho sun thaws them out on exposuro, the air is tainted with tho odor of-decaying flesh, . Tfio remains of tho mnmmoth aro found chiefly in post-glacial deposits. They occur In the post-glacial river gravels all over tho north temperate zone, and beneath tho deposits of loess (which aro connected with tho close of tho glacial period) In tho Missouri Mis-souri valley. But the sltuntion In which thoy most frequently occur ia In peat bogs, whero they scorn to have been mired soon after tho glacial porlod, and slowly enveloped with the accumulating vegetable and earthy do posits. Usually tho bones aro considerably con-siderably scattered, so that a good deal of digging has to bo done to got all the parts. In Siberia they aro found in complete preservation In the ico and frozen soil that cover the northern portion of that vast area. In 1803 Mr. Adams found an entire carenss so perfectly presorvod that the flesh when thawed out waB eagerly eager-ly dovourcd by wolves and bears. This skeleton, with portions of the skin and llgamonts, Is now mounted In the musoum of St. Petersburg. It Is nlno feet high and 16 feet long. i In 1840 a young Russian engineer named Benkendorf saw ono of theso hugo animals Just ns It was uncov-ered uncov-ered In tho frozen bank of tho Indl-glrka Indl-glrka river during a flood. In Its stomach wore tho chewed fragments of the shoots and cones of fir and plno treos, showing upon what tho animal lived. So vivid is his description descrip-tion thnt it Is- worth .while to reproduce repro-duce It. "Picture to yourself nn elephant with a body covored with thick fur, about 13 feot In holght, and 15 in length, with tusks 8 feot long, thick, and curving outwnrd at their ends, a stout trunk of 6 feet In length, colossal colos-sal limbs of 1 feet in thickness, and a tall, naked up to tho end, which was covored with thick tufty hair. Tho animal wbb fat, and well grown; death had overtaken him in tho fullness full-ness of his powers. His parchment-like, parchment-like, large, naked ears lay turned up over tho head; about the "shoulders and the back ho had stiff hair, about a foot In length, like a mane. Tho long outer hair was deep brown, and coaraelVroQtedry.Thetpp40ftliIhead looked so wild, and so penetrated with pitch, that It resembled the rind of an old oak tree. On tho sidos It was cleaner, and under tho outer hair there appeared everywhere n wool, very soft, warm and thick, and of a fallow-brown ' color. Tho glont was well protected against tho cold. "The whole appearance of the an!-mnl an!-mnl was fearfully strango and wild. It hnd not the shape of our present elephants. As compared with our Indian In-dian elephants, Its head was rough, tho brain-base low and narrow, but tho trunk and mouth were much larger. lar-ger. Tho teeth were very powerful. Our elephant 1b an uwkward animal, but compared with this mammoth it is an Arabian steed to a coarse, ugly dray horse. I could not divest myself my-self of a feeling of fear as I approached ap-proached the head; the broken, widely wide-ly open eyes gave tho animal nn appearance ap-pearance of life, as though it might move In n moment and destroys us with a roar. . . . The bad smell of tho body warned us that It wbb tlmo to Bnvo what wo could, and tho swelling flood, too. biulo us hasten. .... But I had tho stomach separated sep-arated and brought on ono side. It wns well filled, and tho contents Instructive In-structive and well preserved. The principal were young shoots of tho flr and plno; a quantity of young flr cones, also in a chewed stnto, were mixed with tho moss." .... |