388 The National Geographic Magazine 





nual trips of the Aleuts, who live on St 

 Paul, to the barren rock called Walrus 

 Island, which lies a little to the eastward 

 of the extreme northern point of St 

 Paul. In the spring, when the guille- 

 mots (" arries," they are called by the 

 natives) and gulls begin to lay eggs on 

 this isolated, and hence protected, rock, 

 the natives go there in their boats and 

 sweep clean a large area. Returning two 

 weeks later they find a vast number of 

 eggs which have not been set upon suffi- 

 ciently to be spoiled. The photograph 

 represents the results of such an expedi- 

 tion to Walrus Island. The egg of the 

 guillemot is somewhat larger than a 

 hen's egg, and the contents make an 

 excellent article of food, not quite so 

 palatable to the white man's taste as the 

 hen's egg, but still a most excellent sub- 

 stitute for it in the land where hen's 

 eggs are few and far between. 



SKULL OF THE IMPERIAL MAMMOTH 



THERE has just been placed on 

 exhibition in the Fossil Mammal 

 Hall of the American Museum of Nat- 

 ural History a superb specimen of the 

 tusks and palate of what may be known 

 as the " imperial mammoth," described 

 in 1858 by Joseph Leidy as Elcphas im- 

 perator, from a single tooth found in 

 Indiana. 



The specimen was discovered in the 

 sands of western Texas man}- years ago 

 by an amateur collector, and was only 

 recently secured by the American Mu- 

 seum. The upper portions of the skull 

 have been reproduced in plaster, but the 

 entire lower portion of the skull, the 

 large pair of grinding teeth, and the 

 gigantic tusks are complete. The latter 

 fall little short of being the largest ele- 

 phant tusks thus far described among 

 either living or fossil members of this 

 family. So far as preserved they meas- 

 ure 13 feet 6 inches from the base of the 

 tusks to the tips, and there is at least 

 a foot broken away from the end of 



the tip, making the total estimated 

 length 14 feet 6 inches. 



On leaving the skull, the tusks (which 

 were undoubtedly used for fighting pur- 

 poses) in young and middle-aged ani- 

 mals curve downward and outward; 

 then, in old animals, upward and in- 

 ward until the tips almost meet each 

 other. The height of this animal must 

 have been at least 13 feet, 2 feet higher 

 than that of the famous African ele- 

 phant " Jumbo," the skeleton of which 

 is also in the Museum. 



The single molar or grinding tooth 

 is distinguished from that of the mam- 

 moth of the extreme north {Elephas 

 primigenius) and that of the Columbian 

 mammoth of the middle United States 

 {Elephas columbi) by its very large size 

 and by the comparatively small number 

 of its enamel plates, which are set widely 

 apart and surrounded by broad bands of 

 cement. In the grinders of the north- 

 ern mammoth the enamel plates are ex- 

 tremely numerous and closely appressed 

 and there is little or no cement. 



This specimen of the imperial mam- 

 moth, therefore, adds greatly to our 

 knowledge, and, together with the giant 

 fore limb, which is placed on exhibition 

 near by, gives an impressive idea of the 

 enormous size attained by the early 

 Pleistocene or preglacial elephants in 

 this country. 



EIGHTH INTERNATIONAL GEO- 

 GRAPHIC CONGRESS 



PURSUANT to the action of the 

 Seventh International Geographic 

 Congress held in Berlin in 1899, the 

 geographers and geographic societies of 

 the United States are considering plans 

 for the ensuing congress, which is to 

 convene in September, 1904. It is pro- 

 posed to have the principal scientific 

 sessions in Washington earh' in the 

 month, and to have social sessions in 

 New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and 

 Chicago, with a final session in conjunc- 



