n, had attained a state of the warlike arts
in which they could venture to hunt this creature.

The species of elephant which was hunted by the early men of Europe,
and perhaps also by those in Asia and America as well, was a greater
and, at least in appearance, a more formidable monster than the living
species of Asia or Africa. He was on the average taller and probably
bulkier than any of his living kindred. The tusks were large and
curved in a curious scimitar form. Adding to the might of its aspect
was a vast covering of hair, which on the neck appears to have had the
form of a mane. This covering must have greatly increased the
apparent size of the creature, which no doubt appeared about twice as
large as any of our modern elephants which are nearly hairless.
Although the perils of this ancient chase must have been great, the
triumphs were equally so, and to a people who lived by hunting, most
profitable; a single animal would furnish more food than scores of
the lesser beasts such as the reindeer.

It seems probable that the ancient northern elephant continued in
existence in North America down to the time when this continent was
inhabited by man. It can hardly be doubted that the very ancient human
beings, whose remains are preserved to us beneath the lava streams of
California, dwelt on the continent along with the mammoth. In
excavations which I have made at Big Bone Lick in Kentucky, where a
group of saline springs emerges at the bottom of a valley, there were
disclosed a very great number of skeletons of this great elephant,
commingled with the bones of one or two smaller forms of the related
genus, the mastodon. At a slightly higher level was the multitude of
remains belonging to an extinct species of bison which came just before
our so-called buffalo, while near the surface of the ground was found
the waste of the creatures which were in the field when it was first
seen by the white men. A very careful search failed to reveal any trace
of man until the uppermost level was attained. The facts, which cannot
well be discussed here, have led me to the conclusion that only a few
thousand years can have elapsed since the mammoth and the mastodon
plentifully abounded in North America; but I am forced to doubt whether
our savages were here in time to make acquaintance with these animals.

It is not certain that the extermination of the great northern
elephant or mammoth even in the Old World came about through th