146 



ANIMALS OF THE PAST 



the ground and perishing when by any accident it saw 

 the light. The reasoning that led to this belief was very 

 simple and the logic very good ; no one had ever seen a 

 live Mamantu, but there were plenty of its bones lying 

 at or near the surface; consequently if the animal did 

 not live above the ground, it must dwell below. 



THE MAMMOTH 



To-day, nearly every one knows that the mammoth 

 was a sort of big, hairy elephant, now extinct, and nearly 

 every one has a general idea that it lived in the North. 

 There is some uncertainty as to whether the mammoth 

 was a mastodon, or the mastodon a mammoth, and there 

 is a great deal of misconception as to the size and 

 abundance of this big beast. It may be said in passing 

 that the mastodon is only a second or third cousin of 



