Conjectural OlseYvalions on the Mammoth. 157 



If then the disproportionate extension of the serpent kind 

 is not provided against by any known means, and we allow 

 as we do the superior necessity of some eftectual restraint 

 to the same, it behoves us to attempt to define the probal^le 

 structure and habits of the animal which should be best able ' 

 to quell this class of reptiles^ not less prolific in theniselve* 

 than they are obnoxious to all other creatures. 



Such an one I presume to be the mammoth, whose stu- 

 pendous appearance gives great air of probability that he is 

 destined to oppose a class of beings uuconcjuerablc by other 

 means- His allowed amphibious nature renders him a fit 

 opponent to the serpent tribe : the position and form of his 

 ribs, so well adapted to resist external pressure, render hiiu 

 calculated to oppose this class of reptiles, whose elforts to 

 vanquish their prey are confined to attempts to entwine the 

 same, and crush, as they do by their convulsive writhings, 

 the bodies of the largest animals we are at present acquainted 

 with. Nor can this strength, indicated in the position and 

 structure of the ribs of the mammoth, be supposed to be 

 for fitting him for resisting the pressure of water merely, 

 .since many of the tribes of fishes which visit the deepest 

 parts of the ocean are unprovided with a similar barrier* 

 for that purpose; at the sanje time that most of such as are 

 furnished with ribs have them barely more than cartilage. 



The tusks of the mammoth are admirably situated for 

 tearing up bushes and digging in morasses, the better to 

 dislodge his prey, the which if of shell-fish, as has been 

 suspected f, would doubtless exhibit his teeth more abraded 

 than they appear to be ; nor is there in our present suppo- 

 sition concerning his diet any necessit)- for canine tecth,- 

 thc absence of which in the mammoth gives great counte- 

 nance to the idea that his food has been of a more soft con- 

 sistence than the muscular flesh of laud animals : the short- 

 ness of the neck would appear a, wise provision in the case 



* Many fish are without ribs; such :ire rays, sharks, pipe-fibh, stin- 

 fish, porcopine-tish, lump-fish, &c. &c. — Cuvier, Oimp. Anatomy. 



f Several re, sons Lad nic to object to the idea of tiih being the ordira'y 

 fcx)d of ihe mammoth. Both shell and flat fish inhabiting solely the 

 water, the animal which mieht be dcjigncd to feed on such diet uoul<l 

 doubtless be an squatic and not an amphibious animal. In the cla« of 

 amphibia it is obkci table, that according as either the water or the laud 

 is most genial to the habits of any one snccie* of these, so does ihcit 

 structure nu)rc or less verije toward that of the ikhy trilw., and tin. con- 

 trary. It therc.'bre rea'oOnably fol'ows, that the anatomical structure of 

 the mammoili, if destined to li>e on fish, and of course in the water, 

 «Uoa'id appi'oach niorc nearly to oihci of the aijuatic cla:>s thao its iV.i:\c\arx 

 jppc;irs ij do. 



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