THE TIME OF THE MAMMOTHS. 159 
mains is indubitable proof, not so much perhaps of the abun- 
dance of the individuals at any one time, as of the long con- 
tinuance of the species on the soil. The buffalo was a 
temporary race on the Ohio Valley; he had probably been 
here only a few thousand years at most, possibly but a few 
hundreds, when the coming of the white man drove him 
beyond the Mississippi. He was not there at the time of 
the mound builders. His bones are not found among their 
remains.: His striking form is not copied in their pottery, 
as are those of all other remarkable mammals of the 
valley. Nor do we find him delineated in the great figure 
mounds of the north-west; although if he existed in the 
region at the time when these people made these earthern 
monuments, he would have been sure of a prominent place 
among them. The elephants and mastodons, on the other 
hand, had a life which may possibly be reckoned by hundreds 
of thousands of years. A species was probably here before 
the glacial period; and since that time up to about the com- 
ing of man, possibly after his advent on the continent, they 
were continually present. The consequence is that their re- 
mains are found in about every spot where the conditions 
of their preservation exist. Almost any swampy bit of 
ground in Ohio or Kentucky where these huge creatures 
would have gotten mired in their efforts to get to water in 
dry seasons, or where the too yielding mud could have swal- 
lowed them up when they endeavored to cool themselves by 
wallowing in the mire, as is the habit of all elephants, con- 
tains more or less evidence of the presence of these animals. 
Sometimes a single tooth or tusk only has survived decay ; at 
other times many skeletons are packed together in the bog. 
The numerous salt springs of the West, commonly ealled 
licks, are peculiarly rich in these remains. Like many 
other mammals these elephants were in the habit of seeking 
once a year, or oftener, some place where they could supply 
the hunger for salt. The saline waters, such as pour from 
Big Bone Lick, the upper and lower Blue Licks of Kentucky, 
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