The Mammoth, probably, was endowed with a fairly tough constitution. In Siberia it fed on fir trees. In Kentucky it fared better, and was surrounded by such vegetation as now flourishes in that temperate region. In the valley of the Tiber (where also its remains are found), though during the “Glacial period” the temperature was, doubtless, lower than at present, we cannot imagine that an arctic climate prevailed. Thus we see that it was capable of flourishing in various and widely separated regions where the conditions of climate and food supply could hardly have been similar.
Professor Boyd Dawkins, whose views we are adopting here,[70] considers that the Mammoth was exterminated by man—a simple solution of the question, which seems to present no difficulties. That it was hunted by the primitive folk of the “Reindeer period” in France, is proved by its remains in the caves where men dwelt, and by a drawing cut by a hunter of the older Stone Age on one of its own tusks! A cast of this most interesting relic may be seen in the prehistoric collection at the British Museum, and shows that the men of that time were not devoid of artistic power (see [Fig. 53]). Some of the lines in this illustration represent cracks in the original, so that the actual outline is not easily made out. But here we see the head particularly well drawn, the tusks and downward lines indicating the hairy mane. Reindeer and other animals were also engraved on horn, etc., by the men who were contemporary with the Mammoth.
[70] Popular Science Review, vol. vii. p. 275 (1868).
Fig. 53.—Figure of the Mammoth, engraved on Mammoth ivory by cavemen, La Madelaine, France. In the Lartet Collection, Paris.
We know that man has exterminated a great many noble animals in his time, and, alas! continues to do so at the present time in Africa, and in North and South America. The giraffe and the bison, once so plentiful, are now almost extinct. Primitive man was a hunter, and, as he multiplied, his wants became greater, and more animals were therefore destroyed. Probably the same explanation applies to the great Moa bird of New Zealand, and possibly even to the Megatherium of South America.
With regard to the tusks of the Mammoth, which are considerably larger than those of either the African or Indian elephant, it is evident that they must have been of some service, for Nature would never have endowed the animal with such great and ponderous instruments—to support which the skull is greatly modified in both the Mammoth and elephant—without some definite purpose. We have often been asked how the Mammoth used his tusks; now, this question can best be answered by reference to the habits of living elephants. The elephant of to-day is a fairly peaceable creature, but, if attacked, can despatch the aggressor in various ways. Some enemies he can crush under his feet; a man he can pick up with his trunk and hurl to a considerable distance, probably with fatal results. But the tusks do not appear to be used as weapons of offence or defence. We must consider how the animal feeds. The general food of the elephant consists of the foliage of trees. In Africa it feeds largely on mimosas. Now, it is clear that, in spite of having a long trunk, an elephant cannot obtain all the leaves of a tall tree while the tree remains standing; mimosa trees, for instance, are often thirty feet high, and have richer foliage at the crown. So it appears that they actually overturn them. On this point we have the testimony of Sir Samuel Baker, who says, “The destruction caused by a herd of elephants in a mimosa forest is extraordinary, and I have seen trees uprooted of so large a size that I am convinced no single elephant could have overturned them. I have measured trees four feet six inches in circumference, and about thirty feet high, uprooted by elephants. The natives assured me that the elephants mutually assist each other, and that several engage together in the work of overturning a large tree. None of the mimosas have tap-roots; thus the powerful tusks of the elephants applied as crowbars at the roots, while others pull at the branches with their trunks, will effect the destruction of a tree so large as to appear invulnerable.” Another writer says the elephant also feeds on a variety of bulbs, the situation of which is indicated by his exquisite sense of smell, and that, to obtain these, he turns up the ground with his tusks, so that whole acres may be seen thus ploughed up.
Now, in Siberia, where the ground would be harder, we can imagine that the larger tusks of the Mammoth would be highly serviceable in uprooting fir trees and breaking off their branches, for Benkendorf’s fortunate discovery informs us that such trees formed at least part of their food.