THE TIME OF THE MAMMOTHS. 165 
amined the conditions of entombment of the extinct peoples 
of the Western states, the preservations of their remains, 
and the changes which have taken place since their deposi- 
tion, can believe that the disappearance of the elephants, and 
the coming of the North American man were separated by 
any great length of time. When the fields of the West, rich 
in the remains of these ancient animals and ancient men, are 
studied as they will be by the rising generation of investi- 
gators of that region, the precise idein will be easily 
established. It is not likely that it will be found that the 
highly organized mound building nations were instrumental 
in driving the extinet elephants from the soil of North 
America. Had they come in contact with these large crea- 
tures we should have had some representation of them in 
their pottery sculpture, where we find figures of all the com- 
mon large mammals of the West, except as before remarked, 
the bison, as well as other forms like the manatee which 
could not have been personally known to the inhabitants of 
the Ohio Valley. It is more likely to have been some rude 
dweller in caves of the stone age who slew the last mammoth 
of America. 
The history of the changes in the elephant life, a little 
while ago so abundant, on three at least of the five conti- 
nents, is not unlike what we find among other types of ani- 
mals and plants which have passed the full meridian of their 
existence and are hastening to their setting. While the type 
is in its full vigor it spreads its diversitied species far and 
wide over northern as well as southern lands ; when it begins 
to wane the northern species fall first in the struggle, and 
the last remnants of the type are found beneath the torrid 
sun where easier conditions permit them to protract a senile 
life. Among the plants the palm and tree ferns ; among the 
animals the large reptiles like the crocodiles and alligators, 
the rhinoceros, the hippotamus, the tapirs, the monkeys, and 
many other types find in the tropical forests the conditions 
of existence which the ruder climes of the north long since 
