THE MAMMOTH 189 



the mammoth might still be living in these lo- 

 calities, where, before the discovery of gold 

 drew thousands of miners to Alaska, there were 

 vast stretches of wilderness wholly untrodden 

 by the foot of man. Neither could this theory 

 account for the disappearance of the mastodon 

 from North America, where that animal cov- 

 ered so vast a stretch of territory that man, 

 unaided by nature, could have made little im- 

 pression on its numbers. That many were 

 swept out to sea by the flooded rivers of Si- 

 beria is certain, for some of the low islands off 

 the coast are said to be formed of sand, ice, 

 and bones of the mammoth, and thence, for 

 hundreds of years, have come the tusks which 

 are sold in the market beside those of the 

 African and Indian elephants. 



That man was contemporary with the mam- 

 moth in southern Europe is fairly certain, for 

 not only are the remains of the mammoth and 

 man's flint weapons found together, but in a 

 few instances some primeval Landseer graved 

 on slate, ivory, or reindeer antler a sketchy 

 outline of the beast, somewhat impressionistic 

 perhaps, but still, like the work of a true artist, 



