THE ELEPHANT 



123 



Fig. 104. — Tooth of Mastodon 

 {M. Americanus) . 



Doubtless the mastodon roamed every continent. They 

 lived in what is known as the Quaternary time, and proba- 

 bly were hunted by early man. Nine species are known 

 from Europe alone, five from India, four from North 

 America, two from South 

 America, and two from Eng- 

 land, while the discovery of a 

 tooth in New South Wales 

 shows that they undoubtedly 

 ranged in the Australian con- 

 tinent. Teeth have also been 

 found on Santa Rosa Island. 



In many of the old Chinese 

 legends there is found an account of a creature called 

 tyn-schu, a huge, subterranean, ratlike animal, a monster 

 provided with long, curved horns which plowed its way 

 through the earth. When it moved through the solid rock, 

 it shook the earth ; hence the earthquake. Some inquisi- 

 tive person attempted to follow up this legend to learn 



what basis of fact there 



was in it, and it was 

 found that the discov- 

 ery of the mammoth 

 in all probability origi- 

 nated the picturesque 

 story. As this great- 

 est of elephants was 

 nearly always found buried in the earth, the Chinese or 

 those from the North readily assumed that it had been 

 killed while tunneling through the crust. 



The mammoth, in a general way, resembled the African 



Fig. 105. — Molar Tooth of a Mammoth 

 {^Elephas primigenius) , GRINDING SURFACE. 



