Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 March 1894 — Big Mastodon Tusks. [ARTICLE]

Big Mastodon Tusks.

A prospector who came down on the steamship City of Topeka Thursday night, fnom the gold fields of Alaska, brought a number of curious relics of that far-away region. The most interesting of the collection is a set of ivory tusks of enormous size, the remains of a mastodon. A great tooth was also found with the tusks, which were discovered in a deep canon several hundred miles back in the mountains from Juneau. The size of the tusks in question is something phenomenal. They form almost a semi-circle, the circumference being ten feet by actual measurement, tapering down to a point from a thickness of about six inches, where the tusk projects from the head. The elements of ages have apparently had but little effect on these mastodonic ornaments, for the surface is almost smooth, and nearly as hard as rock, and the combined weight of the two tusks exceeds 350 pounds. The tooth found is of irregular shape, probably fourteen inches long, six inches through, and weighs ten or fifteen pounds.—[Seattle Telegraph. Nearly all the known varieties of precious stones are found in the United States.