MAN. 79 



boscis or snout to neck or throat, thirty-one feet ; space 

 between fore and hind legs, fifty-one feet ; from end of pro- 

 boscis to fore legs, thirty-nine feet ; across the body, thirty- 

 six feet ; general height of body above surrounding ground, 

 five feet. The head is large and the proportions symmet- 

 rical." In the same section of country there are many 

 mounds in the form of animals. 



The existence of this mound does not establish the theory 

 that the mastodon was here when the Mound-Builders 

 flourished. No bones of any species of the elephant fam- 

 ily have been found in the ancient monuments of the Mis- 

 sissippi Valley. The striking form of this family is not 

 delineated on their pottery, as are those of all remarkable 

 animals of the Valley. It is evident that the mammoth 

 and its cousin, the mastodon, ceased to exist in the Valley 

 long before it was occupied by the Mound-Builders. How 

 then are we to account for the " Big Elephant Mound?" 

 This mound may yet be the means of unraveling a portion 

 of that mystery which surrounds this lost people. But 

 the fact of the mound does not prove that the proboscid- 

 ians still lived in the Valley when that mound was built. 

 The Mound-Builders carried on an extensive commerce, 

 as is shown by the material they used. They have figured 

 tropical animals (the manatus or sea-cow, for instance) 

 which show that they traversed other lands besides their 

 own. If the mastodon lived in Central America during 

 the time the Wisconsin mounds were erected, it is not un- 

 likely that this mound was copied from the Central Amer- 

 ican animal ; and if that be the case, then the last retreat 

 of this animal is easily pointed out. Bradford, in his 

 "American Antiquities," says "that a tomb, in the City 

 of Mexico, upon being opened, was found to contain the 

 bones of an entire mammoth, the sepulchre appearing to 

 have been formed expressly for their reception." This 

 would lead to the conclusion that these animals were held 



