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Extinction of Species: Dawkins

Mr. Boyd Dawkins, in a very exhaustive memoir on this animal, quotes an interesting notice of its fossil ivory having * The Natural History of Pliny, J. Bostock and H. T. Riley, book viii. chap iv. + The Voyage of the Vega, A. E. Nordenskjöld. London, 1881. On the Range of the Mammoth in Space and Time, by W. B. Dawkins, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., 1879, p. 138. been brought for sale to Khiva. He derives * this account from an Arabian traveller, Abou-el-Cassim, who lived in the middle of the tenth century.

Figuier + says: "New Siberia and the Isle of Lachon are for the most part only an agglomeration of sand, of ice, and of elephants' teeth. At every tempest the sea casts ashore new quantities of mammoth's tusks, and the inhabitants of New Siberia carry on a profitable commerce in this fossil ivory. Every year during the summer innumerable fishermen's barks direct their course to this isle of bones, and during winter immense caravans take the same route, all the convoys drawn by dogs, returning charged with the tusks of the mammoth, weighing each from one hundred and fifty to two hundred pounds. The fossil ivory thus withdrawn from the frozen north is imported into China and Europe."

In addition to its elimination by the thawing of the frozen grounds of the north, remains of the mammoth are procured from bogs, alluvial deposits, and from the destruction of submarine beds. They are also found in cave deposits, associated with the remains of other mammals, and with * The notice is taken from Les Peuples du Caucause, ou Voyage d'Abou-el-Cassim, par M. C. D'Ohsson, p. 80, as follows: -" On trouve souvent dans la Boulgarie des os (fossils) d'une grandeur prodigieuse. J'ai vu une dent qui avait deux palmes de large sur quatre de long, et un crâne qui ressemblait à une hutte (Arabe). On y déterre des dents semblables aux défenses d'éléphants, blanche comme la neige et pesant jusqu'à deux cents menns. On ne sait pas à quel animal elles ont appartenu, mais on les transporte dans le Khoragur (Kiva), où elles se vendent à grand prix. On en fait des peignes, des vases, et d'autres objets, comme on façonne l'ivoire; toute fois cette substance est plus dure que l'ivoire; jamais elle ne se brise." + The World before the Deluge, L. Figuier. London, 1865. † According to Woodward, over two thousand grinders were dredged up by the fishermen of Happisburgh in the space of thirteen years; and other localities in and about England are also noted. - Dana's Manual of Geology, p. 564. flint implements. This creature appears to have been an object of the chase with Palæolithic man.