100 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 



NOTE N. 



The traditions of the Indians, and the speculations of philosophers, respecting this 

 enormous animal, have been various, and, perhaps, on the whole, unsatisfactory. It is 

 certain that the Indians had some notions respecting the mammoth, which they might 

 have derived from tradition, or, after seeing its remains, they might have invented the 

 fables which exist. Charlevoix, in his Voyage to North America, (vol. 1.) says, " There 

 is also a very diverting tradition among the Indians of a great elk of such a monstrous 

 size, that the rest are like pismires in comparison of him ; his legs, they say, are so long 

 that eight feet of snow are not the least encumbrance to him ; his hide is proof against 

 all manner of weapons, and he has a sort of arm proceeding from his shoulders which 

 he uses as we do ours. He is always attended by a vast number of elks, which form his 

 court, and which render him all the service he requires." This description respecting 

 the arm appears like the proboscis of an elephant. Kalm, who travelled in this country 

 in 1 T49, says, " Some years ago a skeleton of an amazing great animal had been found 

 in that part of Canada where the Illinois live on the river Ohio. The Indians were 

 surprised at the sight of it ; and when they were asked what they thought it was, they 

 answered that it must be the chief or father of all the beavers. It was of prodigious 

 bulk, and had thick white teeth about ten inches long. It was looked upon as the skele- 

 ton of an elephant. A French lieutenant in the fort, who had seen it, assured me that 

 the figure of the whole snout was yet to be seen, though it was half mouldered. He 

 added that he had not observed that any of the bones were taken away, but thought the 

 skeleton lay quite perfect there. I have heard people talk of this monstrous skeleton 

 in several other parts of Canada." Kalmi's Travels, vol. 3. 



During the revolution a delegation of warriors from the Delaware tribe told the gover- 

 nor of Virginia that it was a tradition handed down from their fathers, " that, in ancient 

 times, a herd of these tremendous animals came to the big bone licks and began an 

 universal destruction of the bear, deer, elk, buffaloes, and other animals which had been 

 created for the use of the Indians ; that the Great Man above, looking down and seeing 

 this, was so enraged, that he seized his lightning, descended on the earth, seated himself 

 on a neighbouring mountain, on a rock of which his seat and the print of his feet are still 

 to be seen, and hurled his bolts among them till the whole were slaughtered, except the 

 big bull, who, presenting his forehead to the shafts, shook them off as they fell ; but 

 missing one at length, it wounded him in the side ; whereon springing round, he bounded 



