xX 
THE MAMMOTH 
His legs were as thick as the bole of the beech, 
His tusks as the buttonwood white, 
While his lithe trunk wound like a sapling around 
An oak in the whirlwind’s might.” 
In the October number of McClure’s Magazine for 1899 
_ was published a short story, “ The Killing of the Mammoth,” 
| by “ H. Tukeman,” which, to the amazement of the editors, was 
_ taken by many readers not as fiction, but as a contribution to 
_ natural history. Immediately after the appearance of that 
number of the magazine, the authorities of the Smithsonian In- 
. stitution, in which the author had located the remains of the 
beast of his fancy, were beset with visitors to see the stuffed 
mammoth, and the daily mail of the Magazine, as well as that 
of the Smithsonian Institution, was filled with inquiries for 
more information and for requests to settle wagers as to whether 
it was a true story or not. The contribution in question was 
_ printed purely as fiction, with no idea of misleading the public, 
i and was entitled a story in the table of contents. We doubt if 
any writer of realistic fiction ever had a more general and con- 
I i uncing proof of success. 
Azout three centuries ago, in 1696, a Russian, 
one Ludloff by name, described some. bones 
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