148 THE TIME OF THE MAMMOTIIS. 
it is a mortifying fact that the early explorers in this country 
generally found welcome and hospitality among the Indians 
before the white traders had corrupted them. Now it is dif- 
ficult to find a tribe that a white man cares to visit unless 
with the balance of power on. his side. Indian cunning even 
has not proved equal to the duplicity of the white man. You 
may have heard of the Indian who offered his beaver skins 
for sale to a trader in olden times in one of our Puritan vil- 
lages, when the trader was on his way to church. The trader 
would not purchase then, but in a whisper stated a price. 
When the church was dismissed the Indian followed the 
trader home and demanded payment for his skins, but was 
forced to accept a less price than was first named. The 
Indian took the money but told an acquaintance that he had 
discovered the use of the big meeting at the church,— "it 
was to lower the price of beaver skins." 
As a white man I take the side of the pioneer in defence 
of his family, but I wish the Indians could have been spared 
much of the degradation brought upon them by bad white 
men that must eventually end in complete subjection, or 
extermination. 
NOTE. Allthe fi PT M Pr RTI ted, drawn from memory. — EDS. 
e D 
THE TIME OF THE MAMMOTHS. 
BY PROF. N. S. SHALER. 
We must ask the reader to go with us into the remote 
past; back beyond the time when man invaded the primitive 
forests and disturbed the abundant life which covered the 
prairies around the great inland seas of our continent ; still 
farther back until we come to a time when very different 
animals from those now living there, roamed those woods 
and fields. We thus come to a time remote when measured 
tater ae eo ES 
