164 THE TIME OF THE MAMMOTHS. 
tion of M. Lartet, of Paris. Some artistic spirit of the 
stone age has commemorated an incident*of the chase by 
graving upon this fragment a rude, but spirited representa- 
tion of the animal to whom the tusk belonged. The form 
is very characteristic ; the shape of head, such as the species 
is known to have had, differing considerably from that of the 
African elephant, is clearly shown. But one feature alone is 
sufficient to show that the savage meant to represent a mem- 
ber of the race to which the Lena elephant belonged; it is 
the long, shaggy hair, falling like a mane from the shoulders 
and neck and fringing the belly ; this is clearly indicated in 
the engraving. But for the preservation of the Siberian 
elephants in ice we would have failed to perceive the meaning 
of this feature in the drawing; as it is it leaves no doubt 
that he who drew it had an Hlephas primigenius in his 
mind's eye. 
It was probably for the best that man should have come 
upon earth while these giants still lived. They were his 
teachers in the first arts of craft and courage. Having to 
dispute the possession of his primitive home, the caverns, 
with the gigantic cave bear, and the mastery of the forests 
with the formidable elephants, he was compelled to contrive 
weapons and use them with well concerted bravery. The 
magnitude of the dangers which surrounded him compelled 
him to associate himself with his fellow men, and his tri- 
umphs in struggles, where skill and valor prevailed against 
animal strength, gave him the first rude education of the 
combat. 
If we must seek a reason for the death of the elephants in 
external influences we may well find it in the coming of man, 
though it would be quite as reasonable to suppose that their 
race already, as we have seen very ancient, passed away 
because it had lived its time and done its appointed work. 
We have no such evidence of the contact of man with this 
ancient race of giants on the continent of North America as 
European discoveries have afforded. No one who has ex- 
