152 THE INTERPRETATION OF THE PALEONTOLOGICAL CRITERIA 



islands after the subsidence of the region. It may be of interest to record 

 here that in a lava cave on St. Paul Island portions of mammoth teeth 

 were found in company with teeth and bones of the polar bear, undoubt- 

 edly having been placed there by man. 



From the great size of some teeth 14 it is possible that the elephant of 

 southern California may prove to be Elephas imperator, if not they are 

 by far the largest teeth known of Elephas colwnbi. However, until more 

 abundant and better material is available for study, points like this can- 

 not be definitely settled. 



That early man was the contemporary of some of these fossil elephants 

 at least in Europe, if not in this country as well, is conclusively shown, 

 not only by the association of flint implements with mammoth bones, 

 but also by the artistic efforts of Palaeolithic man himself who has left 

 us characteristic sketches of the beast. These have been found on the 

 walls of caves which contained human remains or implements, or they 

 were graven on pieces of reindeer antler or on bits of the tusks them- 

 selves. The accompanying plate is from a photograph of one of these 

 ancient engravings made upon a fragment of a tusk and found at La 

 Madelaine in France. Figure two on this plate is from a photograph of 

 a painting by the late Charles Wilson Peale, of Baltimore, and shows a 

 party of workmen engaged in digging out the remains of a mastodon 

 under his direction, and probably represents the actual scene which is 

 supposed to have been near Newburgh, 1ST. Y. 



14 The largest recorded tooth is that from Alameda, California, noted by Dr. 

 E. O. Hovey, measuring 13 by 15 inches and weighing 21 pounds. 



