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 i 
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 thi 
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 
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