364 MAMMOTH IVORY. 



It may, however, be remarked that the contents of the stomachs of 

 the frozen mammoths, as also those of the two species of rhinoceroses 

 which were their fellow-inhabitants of the tundras, contain remains of 

 pine needles and other vegetable substances. And from this it may 

 be inferred that the tundras themselves were clothed with forest during 

 the mammoth epoch, since the theory that the carcasses were carried 

 down by the rivers flowing from warmer southern regions into the 

 Arctic Ocean can scarcely merit serious attention. Possibly some 

 light may be thrown upon the subject by the great accumulations of 

 bones of large recent mammals which have been met with in certain 

 districts of East Africa. 



Although outside scientitic and commercial circles comparatively 

 little is known with regard to the subject in England, mammoth ivory, 

 in place of being a modern disco v^er}-, was known to the ancients, and 

 has for centuries been an article of trade and manufacture. It is, 

 however, only recently that the history of the subject has been worked 

 out; and for this we are largely indebted to the labors of Sir H. H. 

 Howorth^ and Dr. Trouessart,'^ of Paris. Baron Nordenskiold has 

 likewise contributed important information on the subject in the 

 Voyage of the Vega. And it is from these sources that the following 

 paragraphs are mainly compiled. 



If we may take the ''buried ivory" mentioned by Pliny on the 

 authority of Theophrastus, a disciple of Aristotle, to be the same as 

 mammoth ivory, we ma}^ regard this substance as known to the Western 

 world in the time of Alexander. But apart from this, mammoth ivory 

 was evidenth^ familiar at a very remote time to the Chinese, who 

 spoke of the animal b}^ which it was yielded as " thien-shu" (the mouse 

 that hides). This mythical creature, which was compared in size to an 

 elephant, was reported to lead a subterranean existence like a mole, 

 with bones as white as ivory, and the flesh cold, but pure and whole- 

 some, this reference to the coldness of the flesh apparently pointing 

 to their acquaintance with frozen mammoth carcasses. 



In Europe, Eginhard, the historian of Charlemagne, states that 

 among the presents sent to the Emperor of the West by the Kalif 

 Haroun-al-Raschid in the year 8U7 were the horn of a "licorne" and 

 the claw of a grifion. These rarities were long preserved in the royal 

 treasury at St. Denis; and, from a description given in a work dated 

 1646, it appears that while the former was a mammoth tusk, the latter 

 was the horn of the woolly Siberian rhinoceros. 



During the ninth or tenth century^ Arab traders appear to have 

 established a trade route from northern Russia or Siberia to Persia or 

 Syria; and their records refer to the occurrence of buried ivory near 

 the city of Bolghari, on the Volga, which was probably situated on or 



^The Mammoth and'the Flood, Chap. Ill (1887). 



■^Le Mammoth et I'lvroire de Siberie, Bull. Soc. Acclim. Paris, 1898. 



=*Dr. Trouessart gives the former and Sir H. Howorth the latter. 



