190 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 



preserving the salient features. We see the 

 curved tusks, the snaky trunk, and the shaggy 

 coat that we know belonged to the mammoth, 

 and we may feel assured that if early man did 

 not conquer the clumsy creature with fire and 

 flint, he yet gazed upon him from the safe 

 vantage point of some lofty tree or inaccessi- 

 ble rock, and then went home to tell his wife 

 and neighbors how the animal escaped because 

 his bow missed fire. That man and mammoth 

 lived together in North America is uncertain ; 

 so far there is no evidence to show that they 

 did, although the absence of such evidence is 

 no proof that they did not. That any live 

 mammoth has for centuries been seen on the 

 Alaskan tundras is utterly improbable, and on 

 Mr. C. H. Townsend seems to rest the respon- 

 sibility of having, though quite unintentionally, 

 introduced the Alaskan Live Mammoth into 

 the columns of the daily press. It befell in this 

 wise : Among the varied duties of our revenue 

 marine is that of patrolling and exploring the 

 shores of arctic Alaska and the waters of the 

 adjoining sea, and it is not so many years ago 

 that the cutter Corwin, if memory serves 



