IN DAYS OF OLD

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXII, Issue 12543, 3 May 1935, Page 5

IN DAYS OF OLD

WHEN BRITAIN WAS VERY COLD. MAMMOTH FOSSIL FOUND. FARNHAM (Eng.), March 23. The finding near here of the skeleton of a mammoth recalls the days when the green meadows of this English county were the home of historic monsters. The one found was the possessor of a pair of fine tusks, 10 feet long and 191 inches in circumference. Major A. G. Wade, the discoverer told a press representative that he had only succeeded in salvaging one of the tusks, as the other one and the bones were in too crumbly a condition to move without- falling into dust. The skeleton was found in a river drift in what is known as the 50-foot-terrace of the River Woy. a tributary of. the Thames, where it lias lain for some 10.000 years, or possibly more. The discovery is regarded by experts as of importance, for it throws fresh light on climatic change. They figure it out in this way. The mammoth, they rocjill. unlike the elephant, which he resembles, was a cold climate animal, and carried a heavy coat of hair underneath, which was a close, woolly coat of a reddish brown color. This is known from remains which have, been discovered from time to time in Siberia where they have been embedded in the frozen soil. As. those have been exposed by the melting of the ground in warm summers, the bodies of the nearly perfectanimals with their hairy covering have been brought to light. It is the knowledge that mammoth remains are only found where the climate must have been extremely cold which shows how warm Great Britain has become since those far-off days of the glacial age.