Young folks' history of the United States . he solid hoofs ofour present horses; and there were cloven-footed ani-mals no larger than squirrels; while others, again, wereas large as elephants. There were also gigantic animalsof the sloth family, and, in short, a great variety ofquadrupeds now unknown. No written history tells ofthem ; we do not know whether human eyes ever sawmost of them: but there are the bones in the soil; andnew explorations, especially in Colorado, are constantlybringing more and more species to the But most remarkable among all these fossil animalsdon. were
Young folks' history of the United States . he solid hoofs ofour present horses; and there were cloven-footed ani-mals no larger than squirrels; while others, again, wereas large as elephants. There were also gigantic animalsof the sloth family, and, in short, a great variety ofquadrupeds now unknown. No written history tells ofthem ; we do not know whether human eyes ever sawmost of them: but there are the bones in the soil; andnew explorations, especially in Colorado, are constantlybringing more and more species to the But most remarkable among all these fossil animalsdon. were two great quadrupeds akin to the elephant, and called the mammoth and the mastodon. Theyonce went trampling through the forests, tearing downthe branches of trees for food; and they sometimessank and died in the swamps, unable to move theiihuge weight out of the mire. They were ten or twelvefeet high (taller than any living elephant) ; and theirtusks have been found eleven feet long. We knowtheir shape and size and appearance; and we know. 4 YOUNG FOLKS UNITED STATES. that their race must have existed on the soil of NorthMan may America for thousands of years. Whether men livedheJe with at the samc time with them on the American Conti-*^®^ nent we do not know with certainty: yet there can be Httle doubt that it was so. In France there havebeen found rude drawings of the mammoth, made bymen on ivory and slate, and mingled with remainsof extinct animals in caves. In America no such pos-itive proofs have been discovered; but human bonesand flint implements have been found mingled withthese animal remains. It is very possible that themammoth and the mastodon were gradually destroyedby men. In Southern Africa all the men of a villagego out to hunt an elephant; and, in spite of his greatsize, they kill him with bows and arrows. So it is pos-sible that the flint implements found with the bones oftJiese larger quadrupeds may be the very knives andarrow-heads that killed them; and per
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