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IDAHO
TRI-WEEKLY STATESMAN – BOISE, IDAHO
DECEMBER 20,
1866
REMAINS OF
EXTINCT ANIMALS
Mr. Alvord, Marshal of Idaho Territory, called on
us yesterday and showed us a mammoth tooth which had once belonged to a
monster of vast proportions. The
specimen is one of three found in the same place, one of which weighs
over nine pounds. The one shown us weighs eight and a half pounds, is
about eight inches long without the roots, which have decayed and are
missing, three inches in thickness and not less than seven in width.
It was found on Salmon River, about four miles above the mouth of
Slate Creek, Idaho, at a depth of sixty feet from the surface and ten
feet from the bed rock. Bones
were also found which apparently belonged to the same animal, one of
which, supposed to be a thigh bone, was at least a foot in diameter.
These latter, when exposed to the air, crumbled, but the teeth
are petrified and in a good state of preservation.
The tooth shown us indicates that the animal belongs to one of
the herbiferous tribes. If
he were as large as we may readily suppose from this tooth, it would
require a small forest to make him a moderate breakfast.
He probably belonged to the same age as the mammoth trees in
California; is so, it is easily understood why the trees grew so large
– they were obliged to do it in self-defense. |