THE MAMMOTH.
"Yes, where the huntsman winds his matin horn,
And the couched hare beneath the covert trembles;
Where shepherds tend their flocks, and grow their corn
Where fashion in our gay Parade assembles--
Wild horses, deer, and elephants have strayed,
Treading beneath their feet old Ocean's races."
Horace Smith.
Many are the traditions and tales that have clustered round the
Mammoth.[59] He is, however, no fabulous product of the imagination,
like the dragon, for he has actually been seen in the flesh, and not
only _seen_, but eaten, both by men and animals! But, for all that,
men's minds have been busy for centuries past making up tales, often
of the wildest description, about him; and it is little wonder that a
creature whose bones are found in the soils and gravels, etc., over
more than half the world, and whose body has been seen frozen in
Siberian ice, should have given rise to many tales and superstitions.
To students of folk-lore these legends are of considerable interest,
and to some extent also to men of science. To the latter, however,
one of its many points of interest is that palæontology may be said to
have been founded on the Mammoth. Cuvier, the illustrious founder of
the science of organic remains, was enabled, by his accurate and
minute knowledge of the structures of living animals, to prove to his
astonished contemporaries that the Mammoth bones and teeth, so
plentifully discovered in Europe, were not such as could have belonged
to any living elephant, and consequently that there must have existed,
at some previous period in the world's history, an elephant of a
different kind, and quite unknown to naturalists. This was a new idea,
and accordingly one that met with opposition as well as incredulity.
[59] The word _Mammoth_ is thought by Pallas and Nordenskiöld to be of
Tartar origin. The former asserts that the name originated in the word
_mamma_, which signifies earth (the Mammoth being found frozen in the
earth). It was introduced into the languages of Western Europe about
two centuries ago, from the Russian. But other writers have attempted
to prove that it is a corruption of the Arabic word _Behemoth_, or
"great beast," which in the Book of Job signifies an unknown animal.
In an ancient Chinese work, of the fifth century before Christ, it is
spoken of under the name _tien-schu_, that is to say, "the mouse which
hides itself." The Chinese legends are referred to on p. 199.
It was thought in those days that whatever animals lived in the past
_must_ have resembled those now inhabiting the world, and the idea of
extinct types unknown to man, and unknown to the regions where their
bones were found embedded below the soil, was of so novel and
startling a character as to appear incredible. Besides, the Mosaic
account of Creation made no direct reference to extinct animals, and
therefore the notion was not to be entertained.
It is amusing to note the devices to which people resorted in order to
combat this revolutionary teaching. Thus, when Cuvier first announced
the discovery of the fossil remains of the elephant, hippopotamus, and
rhinoceros in the superficial deposits of continental Europe, he was
gravely reminded of the elephants introduced into Italy by Pyrrhus in
the Roman wars, and afterwards in the Roman triumphal processions or
the games at the Colosseum.
It was only by means of minute anatomical differences that he was able
to show that the bones and teeth of these elephants must have belonged
to a species unlike those now living. But these differences proved too
subtle for even scientific men to appreciate, so slight was their
knowledge of anatomy compared with his; so that they were either
disallowed or explained away.
But he was not to be beaten, and appealed to the fact that similar
remains occurred in Great Britain, whither neither Romans nor others
could have introduced such animals. These are his words: "If, passing
across the German Ocean, we transport ourselves into Britain, which in
ancient history by its position could not have received many living
elephants besides that one which Cæsar brought thither, according to
Polycenus; we shall, nevertheless, find these fossils in as great
abundance as on the Continent."
Another crushing answer to the absurd explanations of Cuvier's
countrymen was added by the sagacious Dean Buckland, who pointed out
that in England, as on the Continent, the remains of elephants are
accompanied by the bones of the rhinoceros and hippopotamus, animals
which not even Roman armies could have subdued or tamed! Owen also
adds that the bones of fossil elephants are found in Ireland, where
Cæsar's army never set foot.
It was in 1796 that Cuvier announced that the teeth and bones of the
European fossil elephants were distinct in species from both the
African and the Indian elephant, the only two living species (El.
africanus and El. indicus). This fundamental fact opened out to him
new views about the creation of the world and its inhabitants, and a
rapid glance over other fossil bones in his collection showed him the
truth and the value of this great idea (namely, the existence of
extinct types), to which he consecrated the rest of his life. Thus
palæontology may be said to have been founded on the Mammoth.
The fossil remains of elephants have, on account of their common
occurrence in various parts of the world, attracted a great deal of
attention, both from the learned and the unlearned. In the North of
Europe they have been found in Ireland, in Germany; in Central Europe,
in Poland, Middle and South Russia, Greece, Spain, Italy; also in
Africa, and over a large part of Asia. In the New World they have been
found abundantly in North America. But in the frozen regions of
Siberia its tusks, teeth, and bones are met with in very great
abundance. According to Pallas, the great Russian savant, there is not
in the whole of Asiatic Russia, from the Don to the extremity of the
Tchutchian promontory, any brook or river on the banks of which some
bones of elephants and other animals foreign to these regions have not
been found. The primæval elephants (Mammoth, Mastodon, etc.) appear to
have formerly ranged over the whole northern hemisphere of the globe,
from the fortieth parallel to the sixtieth, and possibly to near the
seventieth degree of latitude.
Just as the North American Indian regards the great bones of Professor
Marsh's extinct Eocene mammals that peep out from the sides of buttes
and cañons, as belonging to his ancestors, so we find that in all
parts of the world the bones of extinct elephants have, on account of
their great size (and partly from a certain resemblance, in some, to
bones of the human skeleton), been regarded as testifying to the
former existence of giants, heroes, and demigods. To the present day
the Hindoos consider such remains as belonging to the _Rakshas_, or
Titans,--beings that figure largely in their ancient writings.
Theophrastus, of Lesbos, a pupil of Aristotle, appears to have been
the first to record the discovery of fossil ivory and bones. These
were probably obtained by the country people from certain deposits in
the neighbourhood, and are mentioned five hundred years later by
Pausanias. Several Greek legends and traditions appear to be founded
on such discoveries.
Thus the Greeks mistook the knee-bone of an elephant for that of Ajax.
In like manner the supposed body of Orestes, thirteen feet in length,
discovered by the Spartans at Tegea, doubtless was the skeleton of
some elephant. In the isle of Rhodes, in Sicily, and near Palmero,
Syracuse, and at many other places, similar remains have afforded a
basis for stories of giants. In fact, so much has been said by old
writers on this subject, that whole volumes might be filled with such
matter. Let one or two examples suffice.
In the year 1613 some workmen in a sand-pit near the castle of
Chaumont, not far from St. Antoine, found some bones (probably of the
Mammoth or Mastodon) of the nature of which they were entirely
ignorant, and many of them they broke up. But a certain surgeon named
Mazuyer, hearing of the discovery, bought the bones, and announced
that he had himself discovered them in a tomb thirty feet long,
bearing in Gothic characters the inscription, "Teutobochus Rex." This
was a barbarian king who invaded Gaul at the head of the Cimbri, and
was defeated near Aix, in Provence, by Marius, who brought him to Rome
to grace his triumphal procession. Mazuyer reminded his credulous
readers that, according to the testimony of Roman authors, the head of
this king was larger than any of the trophies borne upon the lances in
triumph, and for a time his marvellous story was accepted. The
skeleton of this pretended giant-king was exhibited in many cities of
France and Germany, and also before Louis XII., who took great
interest in it. The imposture was detected and exposed by Riolan, and
thus a great controversy arose, and numerous pamphlets were written on
both sides. The skeleton remained at Bordeaux till the year 1832, when
it was sent to the Museum of Natural History at Paris, where it may
still be seen. It is needless to say that, on its arrival there, M.
Blainville at once recognised it as being that of an elephant--a
Mastodon, in fact.
Another giant-story may be narrated as follows. In the year 1577 some
large bones were discovered, through the uprooting of an oak by a
storm, in the Canton of Lucerne, in Switzerland. These bones were
afterwards declared by the celebrated physician and professor at
Basle, Felix Plater, to be those of a giant. This learned man
estimated the height of the giant at nineteen feet! and made a drawing
thereof, which he sent to Lucerne. The bones have since nearly all
vanished, but Blumenbach, at the beginning of this century, saw enough
of them to prove their elephantine nature. The good people of Lucerne,
however, being reluctant to abandon their giant, have, since the
sixteenth century, made him the supporter of their city arms.
The Church of St. Christopher, at Valence, possessed an elephant's
tooth, which was shown as the tooth of St. Christopher. As this relic
was "bigger than a man's fist," it is difficult to picture what idea
the people entertained of their saint!
In 1564 two peasants observed on the banks of the Rhone, along a
slope, some great bones sticking out of the ground. These they carried
to the neighbouring village, where they were examined by Cassanion,
who lived at Valence, and was the author of a treatise on giants (_De
Gigantibus_). Cuvier concluded from this writer's description of the
tooth that it belonged to an elephant.
Otto de Guericke, famous as the inventor of the air-pump, in 1663
witnessed the discovery of a fossil elephant, with its tusks
preserved. These he mistook for horns; so did even the illustrious
Leibnitz, who created out of his own imagination a strange animal,
with a great horn in the middle of its forehead, as the creature to
which these remains belonged! One is reminded of Bret Harte's amusing
_jeu d'esprit, The Society upon the Stanislaus_--
"Then Brown he read a paper, and he reconstructed there,
From those same bones, an animal that was extremely rare;"
and how the members of this learned society came to blows over their
fossil bones, and hurled them at one another--"till the skull of an
old mammoth caved the head of Thomson in." But in this case, the
"animal that was extremely rare" was believed in for a long time, and
Leibnitz's "fossil unicorn" was universally accepted throughout
Germany for more than thirty years. At last, however, a complete
skeleton of a Mammoth was discovered, and recognised as belonging to
an elephant; but the unicorn was not given up without a keen
controversy.[60]
[60] The writer is indebted for much of the information here given
with regard to the discoveries of Mammoth bones, and legends founded
thereon, to M. Figuier's _World before the Deluge_.
Near the city of Constadt, in the year 1700, a great quantity of bones
and tusks of elephants were discovered, after excavations had been
made by order of the reigning duke, who had been informed by a soldier
of Würtemberg of the presence of bones in the soil. In this way some
sixty tusks were unearthed. The whole ones were preserved, but those
which were broken were given to the Court physician, who made use of
them for medicinal purposes. After this the "Ebur fossile," or
"Unicornu fossile," was freely used by the German doctors, until the
discovery of the bone-caves of the Hartz, when it became too abundant
to pass for true unicorn, and consequently lost much of its repute.
In our own country elephantine remains have also given rise to strange
tales. The village of Walton, near Harwich, is famous for the
abundance of Mammoth remains, which lie along the base of the
sea-cliffs, mixed with the bones of horses, oxen, and deer. "The more
bulky of these fossils," says Professor Owen, "appear to have early
attracted the notice of the curious. Lambard, in his _Dictionary_,
says that 'in Queen Elizabeth's time bones were found, at Walton, of a
man whose skull would contain five pecks, and one of his teeth as big
as a man's fist, and weighed ten ounces. These bones had sometimes
bodies, not of beasts, but of men, for the difference is manifest.'"
According to the same authority, there is reason to believe that
instances have occurred in Great Britain in which, with due care and
attention, a more or less entire skeleton of the Mammoth might have
been secured. He mentions the case of the discovery of a number of
Mammoth bones by some workmen in a brick-ground, near the village of
Grays, in Essex. But most unfortunately, in their ignorance, they
broke up these valuable relics, and sold the fragments, for three
half-pence a pound, to a dealer in old bones! This somewhat lucrative
traffic went on for over half a year before the matter came to the
notice of Mr. R. Ball, F.G.S., who recovered some fine bones from the
men, and thus rescued them from the destruction that awaited them.
It is greatly to be hoped that some day our National Treasure House at
South Kensington may be enriched with a complete Mammoth skeleton from
British soil.
The Chinese, as might be expected, heard of the Mammoth long before
Europeans did, and they have some strange stories about it. In the
northern part of Siberia, so great is the abundance of Mammoth tusks,
that for a very long period there has been a regular export of Mammoth
ivory, both eastward to China and westward to Europe. Even in the
middle of the tenth century an active trade was carried on at Khiva in
fossil ivory, which was fashioned into combs, vases, and other
objects, as related by an Arab writer of that time. Middendorf
reckoned that the number of fossil tusks which have yearly come into
the market, during the last two centuries, has been at least a hundred
pairs--an estimate which Nordenskiöld considers as well within the
mark. They are found all along the line of the shore between the mouth
of the Obi and Behring Straits, and the further north a traveller
goes, the more numerous does he find them. The soil of Bear Island and
of the Liachoff Islands (New Siberia) is said to consist only of sand
and ice with such quantities of Mammoth bones that it appears as if
they were almost made up of bones and tusks. Every summer numbers of
fishermen make for these islands to collect fossil ivory, and during
the winter immense caravans return laden with Mammoth tusks. The
convoys are drawn by dogs, and in this way the ivory reaches both the
ancient Eastern and the newer Western markets.
It is evident from the Chinese legends that the frozen bodies of
Mammoths have for ages past been either seen by, or reported to,
members of the celestial empire, for it is mentioned in some of their
old books as an animal that lives underground. In a great Chinese work
on natural history, written in the sixteenth century, the following
quaint description occurs: "The animal named _tien-schu_, of which we
have already spoken, in the ancient work upon the ceremonial entitled
_Lyki_ [a work of the fifth century before Christ] is called also
_fyn-schu_, or _yn-schu_, that is to say, 'the mouse that hides
itself.' It always lives in subterranean caverns; it resembles a
mouse, but is of the size of a buffalo or ox. It has no tail; its
colour is dark; it is very strong, and excavates caverns in places
full of rocks and forests." Another writer says, "The _fyn-schu_
haunts obscure and unfrequented places. It dies as soon as it is
exposed to the rays of the sun or moon; its feet are short in
proportion to its size, which causes it to walk badly. Its tail is a
Chinese ell in length. Its eyes are small, and its neck short. It is
very stupid and sluggish. When the inundations of the river
_Tamschuann-tuy_ took place [in 1571] a great many _fyn-schu_ appeared
in the plain; it fed on the roots of the plant _fu-kia_."
An old Russian traveller, who, in 1692, was sent by Peter the Great as
ambassador to the Emperor of China, mentions the discovery of the
heads and legs of Mammoths in frozen soil. After referring to these
discoveries, he says, "Concerning this animal there are very different
reports. The heathens of Jakutsk, Tungus, and Ostiaks say that they
continually, or at least, by reason of the very hard frosts, mostly
live underground, where they go backwards and forwards; to confirm
which they tell us that they have often seen the earth heaved up when
one of these beasts was upon the march, and, after he passed, the
place sink in, and thereby make a deep pit. They further believe that
if this animal comes so near to the surface of the frozen earth as to
smell the air, he immediately dies, which they say is the reason that
several of them are found dead on the high banks of the river, where
they unawares came out of the ground. This is the opinion of the
infidels concerning these beasts, which are never seen. But the old
Siberian Russians affirm that the Mammoth is very like the elephant,
with this difference only, that the teeth of the former are firmer,
and not so straight as those of the latter.... By all I could gather
from the heathens, no person ever saw one of these beasts alive, or
can give any account of its shape; so that all we heard said on this
subject arises from bare conjecture only."
But making all allowance for the gross absurdities of these accounts,
it is clear that they are based on descriptions--probably by the
Tungusian fishermen--of carcases that have been washed out of the
frozen soil by rivers in flood time. Now that we are in possession of
trustworthy accounts, we can understand how these strange tales arose
among an ignorant and superstitious people, such as the fishermen of
these inhospitable shores.
We will now put before the reader the true accounts given by Adams[61]
and Benkendorf.
[61] Abridged from _Memoirs of the Imperial Academy of Sciences of St.
Petersburg_, vol. v. London, 1819.
In 1799 a Tungusian, named Schumachoff, who generally went to hunt and
fish at the peninsula of Tamut after the fishing season of the Lena
was over, had constructed for his wife some cabins on the banks of the
lake Oncoul, and had embarked to seek along the coasts for Mammoth
tusks. One day he saw among the blocks of ice a shapeless mass, but
did not then discover what it was. In 1800 he perceived that this
object was more disengaged from the ice, and that it had two
projecting parts; and towards the end of the summer of 1801 the entire
side of the animal and one of his tusks were quite free from ice. In
1803 the enormous mass fell by its own weight on a bank of sand. It
was a frozen Mammoth! In 1804 Schumachoff came to his Mammoth, and
having cut off the tusks, exchanged them with a merchant for goods.
Two years afterwards Mr. Adams, the narrator of the story, traversed
these distant and desert regions, and found the Mammoth still in the
same place, but sadly mutilated. The people of the neighbourhood had
cut off the flesh, and fed their dogs with it during the scarcity.
Wild beasts, such as white bears, wolves, and foxes, also had fed on
it, and the traces of their footsteps were seen around. The skeleton
was complete all except one leg, but the flesh had almost all gone.
The head was covered with a dry skin, one of the ears was seen to be
covered with a tuft of hairs. All these parts suffered more or less
injury in transport for a distance of 7330 miles to St. Petersburg,
yet the eyes have been preserved. This Mammoth was a male, with a long
mane on its neck, but both tail and proboscis had disappeared. The
skin is of a dark grey colour, covered with a reddish wool and black
hairs. The entire carcase was nine feet four inches high. The skin of
the side on which the carcase had lain was detached by Mr. Adams, for
it was well preserved, but so heavy was it that ten persons found
great difficulty in transporting it to the shore. The white bears,
while devouring the flesh, had trodden into the ground much of the
hair belonging to the carcase, but Mr. Adams was able by digging to
procure about sixty pounds' weight of hair. In a few days the work was
completed, and he found himself in possession of a treasure which
amply compensated him for the fatigues and dangers of the journey as
well as the expense of the enterprise. When first seen, this Mammoth
was embedded in clear pure ice, which forms in that coast escarpments
of considerable thickness, sloping towards the sea, the top of which
is covered with moss and earth. If the account of the Tungusians can
be trusted, the carcase was some way below the surface of the ice when
first seen. Arrived at Takutsk, Mr. Adams purchased a pair of tusks
which he believed to belong to this Mammoth, but there is reason to
doubt whether he did get the right tusks. They are nine feet six
inches long.
[Illustration: Fig. 52.--Skeleton of Mammoth, _Elephas primigenius_
(partly restored), in the Museum at Brussels. Drawn from a photograph,
by J. Smit.]
The skeleton of this specimen, the fame of which may be said to have
spread all over the world, is now set up in the Museum of the St.
Petersburg Academy, and the skin still remains attached to the head
and feet. A part of the skin and some of the hair were sent by Mr.
Adams to Sir Joseph Banks, who presented them to the Museum of the
Royal College of Surgeons.[62] A photograph of the skeleton as it now
stands, may be seen on the wall of the big Geological Gallery at South
Kensington (No. I. on plan), near the specimens of Mammoth tusks. But
it should be pointed out that _the tusks are put on the wrong way_;
for they curve outwards instead of inwards, thus presenting a somewhat
grotesque appearance. For this reason we have not reproduced the
familiar woodcut based on an engraving in the memoir already referred
to.[63] But we give, instead, a sketch taken from a photograph (also on
the wall in gallery No. I.) of a fine skeleton in the Brussels Museum
(Fig. 52). Here the tusks are seen correctly inserted. We must also
draw the reader's attention to the remarkably fine specimen (glazed
case E on plan) consisting of the skull and both tusks complete, found
at Ilford in Essex.
[62] A specimen of the hair of a mammoth may be also seen at the
Natural History Museum (pier case 31) in a tall glass jar. It came
from frozen soil, Behring Strait. By the side of this will be seen, in
a glass box, a portion of the skin of a mammoth, from the banks of the
river Alaseja, Province of Yakutsk, Siberia. It exhibits the under
fur, the long hair having entirely disappeared.
[63] Fig. 32 in Part I. of the _Guide to the Exhibition Galleries in
the Department of Geology and Palæontology in the British Museum
(Natural History), Cromwell Road_. (Price 1_s._) This most useful
guide should be consulted by the reader.
Adams's specimen was, Dr. Woodward thinks, an old individual, and its
tusks had curved upwards so much as to be of little use. In younger
ones they were less curved. The hair that still remains on the skin of
the St. Petersburg specimen is of the colour of the camel, very
thick-set and curled in locks. Bristles of a dark colour are
interspersed, some reddish, and some nearly black. The colour of the
skin is a dull black, as in living elephants (see restoration, Plate
XX.).
Remains of the Mammoth (Elephas primigenius) have been found in great
numbers in the British Isles. A list of localities (from Mr. Leith
Adams's monograph on fossil elephants) is given in the Appendix, but
even this might be extended. Mr. Samuel Woodward calculated that
upward of two thousand grinders of elephants have been dredged up
during a period of thirteen years upon the oyster-bed off Hasborough,
on the Norfolk coast. But many of these doubtless belong to other
species of older date, such as Elephas antiquus.
Dr. Bree, of Colchester, says that the sea-bottom off Dunkirk, whence
he has made a collection, is so full of mammalian remains that the
sailors speak of it as "the Burying-ground."
The remains of the Mammoth occur over a very large geographical
area--fully half the globe.
By far the most important discovery of a frozen Mammoth is that of a
young Russian engineer, Benkendorf by name, who was an eye-witness of
its resurrection, though, most unfortunately, he was unable either to
procure his specimen, as Mr. Adams did, or to make drawings of it.
Being employed by the Russian Government in making a survey of the
coast off the mouth of the Lena and Indigirka rivers, he was
despatched up the latter river in 1846, in command of a small
steam-cutter. The following is a translation of the account which he
wrote to a friend in Germany.
[Illustration: Plate XX.
THE MAMMOTH, ELEPHAS PRIMIGENIUS.
An inhabitant of Northern regions during the Great Ice Age.]
"In 1846 there was unusually warm weather in the north of Siberia.
Already in May unusual rains poured over the moors and bogs, storms
shook the earth, and the streams carried not only ice to the sea, but
also large tracts of land, thawed by the masses of warm water fed by
the southern rains.... We steamed on the first favourable day up the
Indigirka; but there were no thoughts of land; we saw around us only a
sea of dirty brown water, and knew the river only by the rushing and
roaring of the stream. The river rolled against us trees, moss, and
large masses of peat, so that it was only with great trouble and
danger that we could proceed. At the end of the second day, we were
only about forty versts up the stream; some one had to stand with the
sounding-rod in hand continually, and the boat received so many shocks
that it shuddered to the keel. A wooden vessel would have been
smashed. Around us we saw nothing but the flooded land for eight days.
We met with the like hindrances until at last we reached the place
where our Jakuti were to have met us. Further up was a place called
Ujandina, whence the people were to have come to us; but they were not
there, prevented evidently by the floods.
"As we had been there in former years, we knew the place. But how it
had changed! The Indigirka, here about three versts wide, had torn up
the land and worn itself a fresh channel; and when the waters sank we
saw, to our astonishment, that the old river-bed had become merely
that of an insignificant stream. This allowed me to cut through the
soft earth, and we went reconnoitring up the new stream, which had
worn its way westwards. Afterwards we landed on the new shore, and
surveyed the undermining and destructive operation of the wild waters,
that carried away, with extraordinary rapidity, masses of soft peat
and loam. It was then that we made a wonderful discovery. The land on
which we were treading was moorland, covered thickly with young
plants. Many lovely flowers rejoiced the eye in the warm beams of the
sun, that shone for twenty-two out of the twenty-four hours. The
stream rolled over and tore up the soft wet ground like chaff, so that
it was dangerous to go near the brink. While we were all quiet, we
suddenly heard under our feet a sudden gurgling and stirring, which
betrayed the working of the disturbed waters. Suddenly our jäger, ever
on the outlook, called loudly, and pointed to a singular and unshapely
object, which rose and sank through the disturbed waters. I had
already remarked it, but not given it any attention, considering it
only drift-wood. Now we all hastened to the spot on the shore, had the
boat drawn near, and waited until the mysterious thing should again
show itself. Our patience was tried, but at last a black, horrible,
giant-like mass was thrust out of the water, and we beheld a colossal
elephant's head, armed with mighty tusks, with its long trunk moving
in the water in an unearthly manner, as though seeking for something
lost therein. Breathless with astonishment, I beheld the monster
hardly twelve feet from me, with his half-open eyes yet showing the
whites. It was still in good preservation.
"'A mammoth! a mammoth!' broke out the Tschernomori; and I shouted,
'Here, quickly. Chains and ropes!' I will go over our preparations for
securing the giant animal, whose body the water was trying to tear
from us. As the animal again sank, we waited for an opportunity to
throw the ropes over his neck. This was only accomplished after many
efforts. For the rest we had no cause for anxiety, for after examining
the ground I satisfied myself that the hind legs of the Mammoth still
stuck in the earth, and that the waters would work for us to unloosen
them. We therefore fastened a rope round his neck, threw a chain round
his tusks, that were eight feet long, drove a stake into the ground
about twenty feet from the shore, and made chain and rope fast to it.
The day went by quicker than I thought for, but still the time seemed
long before the animal was secured, as it was only after the lapse of
twenty-four hours that the waters had loosened it. But the position of
the animal was interesting to me; it was standing in the earth, and
not lying on its side or back as a dead animal naturally would,
indicating by this the manner of its destruction. The soft peat or
marsh land, on which he stepped thousands of years ago, gave way under
the weight of the giant, and he sank as he stood on it, feet foremost,
incapable of saving himself; and a severe frost came and turned him
into ice, and the moor which had buried him. The latter, however, grew
and flourished, every summer renewing itself. Possibly the
neighbouring stream had heaped over the dead body plants and sand. God
only knows what causes had worked for its preservation; now, however,
the stream had brought it once more to light of day, and I, an
ephemera of life compared with this primæval giant, was sent by Heaven
just at the right time to welcome him. You can imagine how I jumped
for joy.
"During our evening meal, our posts announced strangers--a troop of
Jakuti came on their fast, shaggy horses. They were our appointed
people, and were very joyful at the sight of us. Our company was
augmented by them to about fifty persons. On showing them our
wonderful capture, they hastened to the stream, and it was amusing to
hear how they chattered and talked over the sight. The first day I
left them in quiet possession, but when, on the following, the ropes
and chains gave a great jerk, a sign that the Mammoth was quite freed
from the earth, I commanded them to use their utmost strength and
bring the beast to land. At length, after much hard work, in which the
horses were extremely useful, the animal was brought to land, and we
were able to roll the body about twelve feet from the shore. The
decomposing effect of the warm air filled us all with astonishment.
"Picture to yourself an elephant with a body covered with thick fur,
about thirteen feet in height, and fifteen in length, with tusks eight
feet long, thick, and curving outward at their ends,[64] a stout trunk
of six feet in length, colossal limbs of one and a half feet in
thickness, and a tail, naked up to the end, which was covered with
thick tufty hair. The animal was fat and well-grown; death had
overtaken him in the fulness of his powers. His parchment-like, large,
naked ears, lay fearfully turned over the head; about the shoulders
and the back he had stiff hair, about a foot in length, like a mane.
The long outer hair was deep brown and coarsely rooted. The top of the
head looked so wild, and so penetrated with pich[65] that it resembled
the rind of an old oak tree. On the sides it was cleaner, and under
the outer hair there appeared everywhere a wool, very soft, warm and
thick, and of a fallow-brown colour. The giant was well protected
against the cold. The whole appearance of the animal was fearfully
strange and wild. It had not the shape of our present elephants. As
compared with our Indian elephants, its head was rough, the brain-case
low and narrow, but the trunk and mouth were much larger. The teeth
were very powerful. Our elephant is an awkward animal, but compared
with this Mammoth it is as an Arabian steed to a coarse, ugly
dray-horse. I could not divest myself of a feeling of fear as I
approached the head; the broken, widely-open eyes, gave the animal an
appearance of life, as though it might move in a moment and destroy us
with a roar.... The bad smell of the body warned us that it was time
to save of it what we could, and the swelling flood, too, bid us
hasten. First of all we cut off the tusks, and sent them to the
cutter. Then the people tried to hew off the head, but notwithstanding
their good will, this work was slow. As the belly of the animal was
cut open the intestines rolled out, and then the smell was so dreadful
that I could not overcome my nauseousness, and was obliged to turn
away. But I had the stomach separated, and brought on one side. It was
well filled, and the contents instructive and well preserved. The
principal were young shoots of the fir and pine; a quantity of young
fir-cones, also in a chewed state, were mixed with the mass.... As we
were eviscerating the animal, I was as careless and forgetful as my
Jakuti, who did not notice that the ground was sinking under their
feet, until a fearful scream warned me of their misfortune, as I was
still groping in the animal's stomach. Shocked, I sprang up, and
beheld how the river was burying in its waves our five Jakuti and our
laboriously saved beast. Fortunately, the boat was near, so that our
poor workpeople were all saved, but the Mammoth was swallowed up by
the waves, and never more made its appearance."
[64] This must be incorrect (see p. 203).
[65] "Und mit Pech so durchgedrungen."
Much may be learned from this highly interesting account; it contains
the key to several questions which otherwise might have remained
unsolved. Let us see what conclusions can be derived therefrom.
_First_, its position and perfect state of preservation are sufficient
to prove that it was buried where it died. It sank in a marsh,
probably during the summer. Then came the cold of winter; the carcase,
together with the ground around it, was frozen so that decomposition
was arrested, and frozen it must have remained for many centuries till
the day when M. Benkendorf came across it. Or it may have been buried
up in a snow-drift which in time became ice.
In the region where frozen Mammoths occur (and there are at least nine
cases on record), a considerable thickness of frozen soil may be found
at all seasons of the year; so that if a carcase be once embedded in
mud or ice, its putrefaction may be arrested for indefinite ages.
According to one authority, the ground is now permanently frozen even
to the depth of four hundred feet at the town of Jakutsh, on the
western bank of the river Lena. Throughout a large part of Siberia the
boundary cliffs of the lakes and rivers consist of earthy materials
and ice in horizontal layers. Middendorf bored to the depth of seventy
feet, and after passing through much frozen soil mixed with ice, came
down upon a solid mass of pure transparent ice, the depth of which he
was unable to ascertain.
The year 1846, when M. Benkendorf saw his Mammoth, was exceptional on
account of its unusually warm summer, so that the ground of the tundra
region thawed, and was converted into a morass. Had any Mammoths been
alive then, and strayed beyond the limits of the woods into the
tundra, probably some of them would have been likewise engulphed, and,
when once covered up and protected from the decaying action of the
air, the cold of the next winter would have frozen their carcases as
this one must have been frozen up.
Truly, "there is nothing new under the sun," and the present highly
useful method of freezing meat and bringing it over from America or
New Zealand to add to our insufficient home supplies, is but a resort
to a process employed by Nature long before the age of steamships, and
perhaps even before the appearance of man on the earth!
_Secondly_, with regard to the food of the Mammoth, Benkendorf's
discovery is of great service in solving the question how such a
creature could have maintained its existence in so inhospitable and
unpromising a country. The presence of fir-spikes in the stomach is
sufficient to prove that it fed on vegetation such as is now found at
the northern part of the woods as they join the low treeless tundra in
which the body lay buried.
Before this discovery the food of the Mammoth was unknown, and all
sorts of theories were devised in order to account for its remains
being found so far north. Some thought that the Mammoth lived in
temperate regions, and that the carcases were swept down by great
floods into higher and colder latitudes. But it would be impossible
for the bodies to be hurried along a devious course for so many miles
without a good deal of injury, and probably they would fall to pieces
on the way. But, as Professor Owen has so convincingly argued, there
is no reason why herds of Mammoths should not have obtained a
sufficient supply of food in a country like the southern part of
Siberia, where trees abound in spite of the fact that during a great
part of the year it is covered with snow. And this is his line of
reasoning. The molar teeth of the elephant show a highly complicated
and peculiar structure, and there are no other quadrupeds that feed to
such an extent on the woody fibre of the branches of trees. Many
mammals, as we know, eat the leaves of trees; some gnaw the bark; but
elephants alone tear down and crunch the branches. One would think
there was but little nourishment to be got from such. But the hard
vertical plates of their huge grinders enable them to pound up the
tough vegetable tissue and render it more or less palatable. Of
course, the foliage is the most tempting, but where foliage is scarce
something more is required.
Now, in the teeth of the Mammoth the same principle of construction is
observed, only with greater complexity, for there are more of these
grinding plates and a larger proportion of dense enamel. Hence the
inference seems unmistakable that the extinct species fed more largely
on woody fibre than does the elephant of to-day. Forests of hardy
trees and shrubs still grow upon the frozen soil of Siberia, and skirt
the banks of the Lena as far north as the sixtieth parallel of
latitude.
If the Mammoth flourished in temperate latitudes only, as formerly
suggested, then its thick shaggy coat becomes superfluous and
meaningless; but if it lived in the region where its body has been
found, then the argument from its teeth, and the fir-spikes found in
its stomach, is confirmed by the nature of its skin, and all the old
difficulties vanish. Professor Owen considers that we may safely infer
that, if living at the present day, it would find a sufficient supply
of food at all seasons of the year in the sixtieth parallel, and even
higher. Perhaps they migrated north during the summer; and, judging
from the present limits of arboreal vegetation, they may have been
able to subsist even in latitude 70° north, for at the extreme points
of Lapland pines attain a height of sixty feet.[66]
[66] Sir Henry Howorth, in his _Mammoth and the Flood_, suggests
another theory, and gives some valuable information.
It is often no easy matter to form conclusions with regard to the
habits of extinct animals; and too much reliance must not be placed on
arguments derived from the habits of their living descendants or their
near relations. The older geologists fell into this mistake with
regard to the Mammoth, as did even Cuvier. Modern elephants are at
present restricted to regions where trees flourish with perennial
foliage, and, therefore, it was argued that there must have been a
change of climate--either gradual or sudden, in the country of the
Mammoth.
Cuvier, who believed in sudden revolutions on the earth's surface,
argued that the Mammoth could not possibly have lived in Siberia as it
is now; and that, at the very moment when the beast was destroyed, the
land was suddenly converted into a glacial region! ("C'est donc le
même instant qui a fait périr les animaux, et qui a rendu glacial le
pays qu'ils habitaient, cet événement a été subit, instantané, sans
aucune gradation."[67]) Sir Charles Lyell argued, from geological
evidence with regard to the rise of land along the Siberian coast,
that the climate had become somewhat more severe, and that finally the
Mammoth, though protected by its shaggy coat, died out on account of
scarcity of food.[68]
[67] _Ossemens Fossiles_, tom. i. p. 108.
[68] See _The Principles of Geology_, vol. i. chap. x.
Professor Owen is unwilling to believe that such changes as these
brought about the final extinction of the Mammoth, and he concludes
that it was quite possible for such an animal to have flourished as
near to the North Pole as is compatible with the growth of hardy trees
or shrubs.
"The fact seems to have been generally overlooked, that an animal
organised to gain its subsistence from the branches or woody fibre of
trees, is thereby rendered independent of the seasons which regulate
the development of leaves and fruit; the forest food of such a species
becomes as perennial as the lichens that flourish beneath the winter
snows of Lapland; and, were such a quadruped to be clothed, like the
reindeer, with a natural garment capable of resisting the rigours of
an arctic winter, its adaptation for such a climate would be
complete.... The wonderful and unlooked-for discovery of an entire
Mammoth, demonstrating the arctic character of its natural clothing,
has, however, confirmed the deductions which might have been
legitimately founded upon the localities of its most abundant remains,
as well as upon the structure of its teeth, viz. that, like the
Reindeer and Musk Ox of the present day, it was capable of existing in
high northern latitudes."[69]
[69] _A History of British Fossil Mammals and Birds_, by Richard Owen,
F.R.S., etc. London, 1846.
The problem of the extinction of the Mammoth is not an easy one to
solve. We can hardly account for its disappearance by calling in
geographical changes by which its range became restricted, and its
food supply diminished, so that in the competition with other
herbivorous animals this primæval giant "went to the wall," as the
saying is. Nor does Lyell's appeal to a change in climate, by which
the cold of Siberia became too intense even for the Mammoth, seem
quite satisfactory, especially when we remember how very far north fir
trees range (p. 211).
The Mammoth, probably, was endowed with a fairly tough constitution.
In Siberia it fed on fir trees. In Kentucky it fared better, and was
surrounded by such vegetation as now flourishes in that temperate
region. In the valley of the Tiber (where also its remains are found),
though during the "Glacial period" the temperature was, doubtless,
lower than at present, we cannot imagine that an arctic climate
prevailed. Thus we see that it was capable of flourishing in various
and widely separated regions where the conditions of climate and food
supply could hardly have been similar.
Professor Boyd Dawkins, whose views we are adopting here,[70] considers
that the Mammoth was exterminated by man--a simple solution of the
question, which seems to present no difficulties. That it was hunted
by the primitive folk of the "Reindeer period" in France, is proved by
its remains in the caves where men dwelt, and by a drawing cut by a
hunter of the older Stone Age on one of its own tusks! A cast of this
most interesting relic may be seen in the prehistoric collection at
the British Museum, and shows that the men of that time were not
devoid of artistic power (see Fig. 53). Some of the lines in this
illustration represent cracks in the original, so that the actual
outline is not easily made out. But here we see the head particularly
well drawn, the tusks and downward lines indicating the hairy mane.
Reindeer and other animals were also engraved on horn, etc., by the
men who were contemporary with the Mammoth.
[70] _Popular Science Review_, vol. vii. p. 275 (1868).
[Illustration: Fig. 53.--Figure of the Mammoth, engraved on Mammoth
ivory by cavemen, La Madelaine, France. In the Lartet Collection,
Paris.]
We know that man has exterminated a great many noble animals in his
time, and, alas! continues to do so at the present time in Africa, and
in North and South America. The giraffe and the bison, once so
plentiful, are now almost extinct. Primitive man was a hunter, and, as
he multiplied, his wants became greater, and more animals were
therefore destroyed. Probably the same explanation applies to the
great Moa bird of New Zealand, and possibly even to the Megatherium of
South America.
With regard to the tusks of the Mammoth, which are considerably larger
than those of either the African or Indian elephant, it is evident
that they must have been of some service, for Nature would never have
endowed the animal with such great and ponderous instruments--to
support which the skull is greatly modified in both the Mammoth and
elephant--without some definite purpose. We have often been asked how
the Mammoth used his tusks; now, this question can best be answered by
reference to the habits of living elephants. The elephant of to-day is
a fairly peaceable creature, but, if attacked, can despatch the
aggressor in various ways. Some enemies he can crush under his feet; a
man he can pick up with his trunk and hurl to a considerable distance,
probably with fatal results. But the tusks do not appear to be used as
weapons of offence or defence. We must consider how the animal feeds.
The general food of the elephant consists of the foliage of trees. In
Africa it feeds largely on mimosas. Now, it is clear that, in spite of
having a long trunk, an elephant cannot obtain all the leaves of a
tall tree while the tree remains standing; mimosa trees, for instance,
are often thirty feet high, and have richer foliage at the crown. So
it appears that they actually overturn them. On this point we have the
testimony of Sir Samuel Baker, who says, "The destruction caused by a
herd of elephants in a mimosa forest is extraordinary, and I have seen
trees uprooted of so large a size that I am convinced no single
elephant could have overturned them. I have measured trees four feet
six inches in circumference, and about thirty feet high, uprooted by
elephants. The natives assured me that the elephants mutually assist
each other, and that several engage together in the work of
overturning a large tree. None of the mimosas have tap-roots; thus the
powerful tusks of the elephants applied as crowbars at the roots,
while others pull at the branches with their trunks, will effect the
destruction of a tree so large as to appear invulnerable." Another
writer says the elephant also feeds on a variety of bulbs, the
situation of which is indicated by his exquisite sense of smell, and
that, to obtain these, he turns up the ground with his tusks, so that
whole acres may be seen thus ploughed up.
Now, in Siberia, where the ground would be harder, we can imagine that
the larger tusks of the Mammoth would be highly serviceable in
uprooting fir trees and breaking off their branches, for Benkendorf's
fortunate discovery informs us that such trees formed at least part of
their food.