Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 12.djvu/856

* XAJCKOTH. 762 MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS. the 'licorne' sent as a present liy Ilanin al- Ka*hid to Charlemagne is beliered to be a mammotli's tusk. Arabic writers of the tenth centur- mention it as an article of rejnilar Kiis- sian trade, and ever since that time fossil ivory has come from Siberia at a rate calculated to be not less than 101) pairs of tusks a year. Anion" the strange conceptions of the animal which furnished this ivory that aios«" among people unfamiliar with elephants was that of the Chinese, who said it must be a mole, because its remains were always found undiT ■jiound. This was not so illogical as the pious hypoth- esis in Europe that the bones were those of Saint Chri-topher. The. gathering of this ante- diluvian heritage continues to be a regular busi- ness along the .rctic coast. In 17!»!> one of the ivory hunters discovered in the clilVs of per- petually frozen e-arth and ice which border the course of the lower Lena River a shapeless mass which three years later, under the inlUu'nee of a succession of unusually warni summers, had been released from its tomb and fallen to the foot of the elitr. In March of 1803 the hunter visiteil it and cut off and carried away the tusks, which he sold for fifty rubles. In ISOti the animal was examined bv a scientific man. The >akuts of the nei;;ld)orhood had cut off the flesh to feed their dogs, and the wild beasts had almost en- tirely cleaned the bones. The skeleton was, how- ever,' iiearlv entire, and some of the bones were still' held together by ligaments. The head yas covered with dry skin, and one of the ears, which was well preserved, was furnislied with a tuft of hairs. Three-fourths of the whole skin was pro- cure<l ; it «T»s of a dark gi-ay color, and was covered with a reddish wool, and long black hairs or bristles, forming a long mane on the neck. The entire carcass, together with the recovered tusks, was removed to Saint Petersburg, where it is now preserved. Since that perio<l several other carcasses have been disentombed by melting or floods, but, in spite of strenuou.s ell'orts, no val- uable parts have been recoverable. What caused the disaiipearance of the mam- motlis has not tx'en satisfactorily explained. To judge by the extraordinary ahiiudance of the re- mains, this elephant must have been excessively numerous throughout most of its range. It seems fitted to withstand any cold to which there is reason to suppose the species was ever exposed, at any rate in the southerly parts of its range. At its period the present treeless areas of Xorth- orn Asia were covered with forests of pine, upon whose leaves anil underbrush the elephants were aceustonied to feed. The disajipearance of these forests would account for the extinction of this and associated extinct animals in that region, but the question as to the rest of the habitat remains unanswered. There is no doubt that in Western Europe, and probably in .Xmeriea. mam- moths survived 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 France, some upon pieces of the animal's tusk. That those men. assailing the mammoth in numbers, driving it into inclosures and entrapping it in pitfalls, could overcome it cannot be doubted ; and it is probable that in Europe the waning species was finally 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 Klei"H. t, paragraph FodkU EWphunt. BiBi,lo miles soutli- west of "Lexington. The Mammoth Cavi — dis- covered in ISO!) by a hunter named Hutchins — consists really of a series of caverns that have been explored" for a distance of many miles. Its mouth is about GOO feet above sea-Ievel. Sev- eral streams occur in the cave, the priueiiial one being the Eelio River, which has a length of nearly three-quarters of a mile and communi- cates" through an underground passage with Green River. The Styx, about -l-'iO feet long, i- remarkable for a natural bri0 feet higli, and Lucy's Dome, over 300 feet high and 00 fe<'t in diameter. Cleveland .Vvenue extends for mon- than two miles, and presents a most wonderful variety of crystals and incrustations. All of the halls olTer to view numbers of stalaginitr- and stalactites, whose varied and conlrastiiij shapes or grotesque resemblanc-es to natuial or architectural objects, in conjunction with the streams, lakes, cataracts, and fountains, form the wonderfully pieturescpie scenerv of the cavern. Startling cllVcts are produce«l by the use of lights and fireworks, the Star ChamlH-r showing on its ceiling myriads of glistening points, from which it takes its name. The Mammoth Cave is but one of an extensiv system of eaves occurring over an area of not less than 8000 sipiare miles in Kentucky and Tennes- see. The process of formation seems to have been as fellows: Rainwater and melted snow more or less charged with carbonic acid gas, and having the power of dissolving limestone, makes its way downward by means of joints and bedding planes in the rocks, and finally comes to the surface again as springs at levels <letermined by the larger drainage systems of the country. From the surface downward this flowing water dis- solves out sink-holes and pipes : in its horizontal progress toward an outlet it carves out the cav- erns. The gradual lowering of the beds of larger river systems jiermits lower outlets for these subterranean waters, thus leaving the older gal- leries drv. The atmosphere of Mammoth Cave varies little from 54° F. the year around. The animal life of the cave consists of a few species of fish and crayfish and several species of insects and bats. See" Cave Axim.vl.s. Consult Hovey, Celehrolcd Aincriciin Caverns (Cincinnati. 188-2). MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS. A group of thermal springs situated in the extreme north of the Yellowstone National Park in north- western Wyoming. The waters deposit calcium carbonate in the form of travertine, which covers I