ELEPHANT TUSKS 393 



in. along the curve, and having a girth of 35.43 in., while the 

 other and longer one attains an extreme length along the 

 curve of 13 ft. 7.78 in., with~the same extreme circumference 

 as the shorter one. The weights are respectively 167 and 

 186 pounds. They were found on the Kolyma River, north- 

 eastern Siberia, by the Russian merchant Gromoff , and at 

 the time of their discovery were still attached to the skull of 

 the mammoth. The great curve described by these tusks 

 is shown by the fact that on a straight line they measure 

 respectively 7 ft. 4.58 in. and 6 ft. 11.46 in., the shorter meas- 

 urement on a straight line being that of the longer of the 

 tusks. They are in perfect condition, showing both the pulp 

 and the tip intact.* 



A fossil mammoth tusk of extraordinary size comes from 

 a creek near Kotzebue Sound. It was found by some Eski- 

 mos, buried in the frozen tundra, which never thaws. It 

 is said to be 14 ft. long, 9 in. in diameter at the largest end, 

 weighs 165 pounds, and is in perfectly sound condition 

 throughout. It has been pronounced the very best specimen 

 ever discovered. If the reported length be correct this 

 would be probably the longest tusk so far recovered, except- 

 ing the imperfect tusks from Rancho La Brea, California, 

 which are supposed to have originally exceeded 15 ft. in 

 length, and the extraordinary specimens in the Instituto Geo- 

 logio of Mexico City, as well as that in Brunn. 



When during the cruise of the revenue marine steamer 

 Corwin, in the Arctic Sea in 1885, anchor was cast for a 

 short time at Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, the natives 

 offered for barter several large tusks and bones of the mam- 

 moth. We need not be surprised to learn that the native 

 ideas of the appearance of the extinct mammal were rather 

 wide of the mark. They supposed that it must have re- 



*E. Pfizenmayer in Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution for 1906, p. 328; 

 translation; Washington, 1907. 



