THE HAIRY MAMMOTH. 35 
living species of elephant. A species of mastodon inhabited 
the Pampas of Brazil, the bones having been found in the 
bone-caves near Rio, and the Mastodon Humboldtti lived in 
the Andes. The Mastodon giganteus lived on the spruce 
and fir trees. The food of the tropical existing species is 
well known to consist of the leaves and succulent branches 
of trees. 
It must seem strange to many of our readers to have had 
introduced, as a characteristic feature in our landscapes of 
prehistoric times, herds of wild elephants much exceeding 
in size the tamed imported specimens that march servilely 
through our towns and villages. How would the children 
of to-day grin and wonder with patriotic glee should a 
squad of veritable American elephants stalk through the 
gaping throng! Such fortune fell only to the lot of the pre- 
historic dohin. What glorious times were those when the 
children of the Mound-builders perhaps trooped on gala days 
of antediluvian rejoicing, to see trained lions and learned 
horses exhibit in the circus of those days (if the Preadamites 
were circus-goers) ; saw the megatherium fed, the hunger of 
the megalonyx and mylodon appeased with small forests of 
saplings, and—crowning delight of all—rode on the backs 
of docile Mammoths and more than elephantine mastodons !* 

* These animals may possibly have been in America contemporaries of the earliest 
races of men, as some of the species or allied forms are now proved to have been in 
rope. 
Professor J. Marcou states that jaah bones have been found pigs in the bone- 
beds of the Natchez quarternary deposits, or in een lying over the: Regarding the 
sareman whether man was really contemporaneous with the Ma beh and the m 
ternary mi ammals, Professor Dana — legate tiy North America there are no know 

Professor Pann i in his SE of Geology, cites, among the characteristic mammals 
of this period in North America, the great beav ver (Castoroides Ohioénsis), the Bison 
latifrons Leidy, a sponge ns ter arger than the e existing neni and a genus of ox 
(Bootherium) related to the musk-ox. A species of sta g (Cervus Americanus Leidy), 
larger than the so Trish Elk, and the American Post- tertiary eal pares sore Leidy), 
about as large as the fossil lion of Britain. Other gigantic mammals, such as the Mega- 
lonyzx and Megatherium and ey inhabited the Gaa Valley, as their bones 
are found associated in the famous N. n a brs locality with remains of the horse, 
at es 8 an nd mastodon » now w known e been a resident of North and South 
voyages. 


