EVOLUTION OF ELEPHANTS 353 



as he remembered it. This sketch was taken off to shore 

 as a great treasure by the natives, and as they are clever 

 copyists, it was multiphed many times over and the copies 

 widely circulated from hand to hand throughout the region. 

 Thus it came about that when questioned by travelling 

 newspaper men, the natives were generally able to give 

 what seemed to be a very plausible account of the appearance 

 and habits of mammoths, so much so that these enterprising 

 knights of the pen felt little hesitation in reporting the 

 actual existence of living individuals of this long-extinct 

 species in out-of-the-way parts of our immense Alaskan 

 territory. As usual, these news items were copied from 

 paper to paper, gaining a certain strength by repetition, 

 and at last forming the framework for a very well-written 

 tale of the "Killing of a Mammoth," by Mr. H. Tukeman, 

 which was published in McClure's Magazine in 1899, and 

 was so circumstantially narrated that questions came pour- 

 ing into the museums for further details on the subject. As 

 the narrator at the close of his tale had given the informa- 

 tion that the skin of the recently slain mammoth was to be 

 set up in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, the 

 director was of course overwhelmed with inquiries from 

 those who were eager to view it, and it was some time before 

 the fact could be made generally known that the whole 

 affair was only a literary mystification.* 



The care that should be exercised in determining the 

 true source of ivory material used industrially is rendered 

 apparent by the following account if 



"In 1904 the writer saw sections of mammoth tusks in 

 the curio shops at Nome that had been polished and carved 

 by the Eskimo of King Island in Bering Sea. The fact that 



*Frederic A. Lucas, "Animals of the Past," New York, 1901, pp. 190 sqq. 

 jThe Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. XLIX, Washington, 1905, p. 22, 

 A. G. Maddern, "Smithsonian Exploration in Alaska in 1904." 



