XI 



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 appear- 

 ance 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, and was entitled 

 a story in the table of contents. We doubt if any writer of realistic fiction 

 ever had a more general and convincing proof of success. 



About three centuries ago, in 1696, a Russian, one 

 Ludloff by name, described some bones belonging to 

 what the Tartars called "Mamantu"; later on, 

 Blumenbach pressed the common name into scientific 

 use as "Mamjnut," and Cuvier gallicized this into 

 "Mammouth," whence by an easy transition we get 

 our familiar mammoth. We are so accustomed to use 

 the word to describe anything of remarkable size that 

 it would be only natural to suppose that the name Mam- 

 moth was given to the extinct elephant because of its 

 extraordinary bulk. Exactly the reverse of this is true, 

 however, for the word came to have its present meaning 

 because the original possessor of the name was a huge 

 animal. The Siberian peasants called the creature 

 "Mamantu," or "ground-dweller," because they be- 

 lieved it to be a gigantic mole, passing its life beneath 



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