Woolly Mammoth
By: J. Dorman, Steele, PhD.
- 1877 -
The mammoth, or fossil elephant, was about one-third
larger than any known to modern times, A tooth, in the ward cabinet, Rochester,
weighs fourteen pounds. This animal wandered in great herds over England,
thence to Siberia and across Behring's Straights into North America. Its
Remains are very abundant. Over 2,000 molar-teeth were found in a few years
by fisherman of the little village of Happisburg. The islands in the sea
north of Siberia are but conglomerations of sand, ice and the tusks and
teeth of elephants. During every storm, the waves wash loose and cast ashore
this fossil ivory, which becomes a profitable article of commerce. Single
tusks are found weighing over 200 pounds. In 1844, 16000 pounds are said
to have been sold at St. Petersburg. The ivory thus obtained has been exported
to China for five centuries, and yet the supply seems undiminished. The
colossal size of these remains has given rise, among the Tartars, to a
curious legend - an elephantine mouse - which lived underground, like a
mole, and which instantly perished when exposed to the least ray of sun
or moon.
In 1799, a fisherman discovered among the icebergs on
the bank of the Lena, an odd-shaped block of ice. Two tears after, he found
the tusks and flank of a mammoth protruding from it, and in five years
the entire body became disentangled, and fell upon the sand. He removed
the tusks and sold them. Two years subsequent, Mr. Adams, of the St. Petersburg
Academy, heard of the discovery, and visited the spot. The people of the
neighborhood had cut off pieces of the flesh for their dogs, and wild beasts
had mangled it, but the skeleton was nearly entire. The skin yet covered
the head; one of the ears, well preserved, was furnished with a tuft of
hair; the neck had a flowing mane; and the body retained scattered tufts
of reddish wool and black hair. Mr. Adams collected the bones, repurchased
the tusks - which were more than nine feet long - and sold the unique specimen
to the Emperor of Russia for $6000.
source: Steele, J. Dorman, PhD.,
The story of Rocks. Fourteen weeks in Popular Geology, New York, Chicago,
and New Orleans, A.S.Barnes and Company, 1877
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