Anion!" the strange conceptions of the animal which tarnished this ivory that arose antong people unfamiliar with elephants was that of the Chinese, who said it must be a mole, because its remains were always found under ground. This ryas not so illogical as the pious hypoth esis in Europe that the bones were those of Saint Christopher. The. gathering of this ante diluvian heritage continues to be a regular busi ness along the Arctic coast. In 1709 one of the ivory-hunters discovered in the cliffs of lwr petnally frozen earth and ice which border the course of the lower Lena River a shapeless mass which three years later. under the influence of a succession of unusually warm summers, had been released from its tomb and fallen to the foot of the diff. In March of 1803 the hunter visited it and cut olT and carried away the tusks, which be sold for fifty rubles. In 1$06 the animal wits examined by a scientific man. The Yakuts of the neighborhood had cut off the fiesh to feed their dogs, and the wild. beasts had almost en tirely cleaned the hones. The skeleton was, how ever, nearly entire, and Sallie of the bones were still held together by ligaments. The head was covered with dry skin. and one of the cars. which was well preserved, was furnished with a tuft of hairs. Th•ee-fourths of the whole skin was pro cured: it was of a dark gray color, and was covered with a reddish wool, and long bind: hairs or bristles, forming a long mane on the neck. The entire eareass, together with the reeovered tusks, was removed to Saint Petersburg, where it is now preserved. Since that period several other eareasses have been disentondwil by melting or lint, in spite of strentions efforts, uable parts have been recoverable.
What caused the disappearance of the mam moths has not 64'11 satisfactorily explained. To judge by the extraordinary abundance of the •e mains, this elephant have been excessively mina-rolls throughoitt most of its range. It seems fitted to withstand any cold to which there is reason to the species was ever exposed, nt any rate in the southerly parts of its range. At its period the present treeless areas of North ern Asia were eovered with forests of pine, upon whose leaves and underbrush the elephants were aeenstomed to feed. The di:appearance of these forests would ac•onnt for the extinction of this and associated extinct animals in that region, hilt the question as to the rest of the habitat remains unanswered. There is no doubt that in Western Europe, and probably in Ameriea, mam moths sturvived not only the advent of mankind. hut even his advancement to the Neolithic stage, Of this a variety of evidence exists, including un mistakable and really excellent etchings made by the 'cave men' of .Southern Franee, some upon pieces of the animal's tusk. That those men. assailing the 'mammoth in numbers, driving it into inelosures and entrapping it in pitfall:. could overcome it cannot he doubted: and it is probable that in Europe the waning species was terminated by human agency.
The relationship of the mammoth to other fossil elephants, and its place in the evolutionary history of its family, will be found treated in the article ELEPHANT, paragraph Fossil Elephant.
See authorities ender Er.r.ralANT: also Beddard. vol. x. of Cambri4/ye Nontrol History; Lucas, Ani mals of the Past (New York, DOI).