One, in particular, we were told, obtained amongst them, namely, that the mastodon still exists in the fastnesses of the Upper Mackenzie.

They describe it as a monster many times larger than the buffalo, and they dread going into the parts it is supposed to haunt.

This singular opinion may be the survival of a very old tradition regarding that animal, but is more likely due to the presence of its remains in the shape of tusks and bones found here and there throughout the Mackenzie River district and the Yukon.
[A similar belief, it is said, exists amongst the Indians of the Yukon.

The remains of the primeval elephant are exceedingly abundant in the tundras of Siberia, and a considerable trade in mammoth ivory has been carried on between that region and England for many years.
It is supposed that the Asian elephant advanced far to the North during the interglacial period and perished in the recurrent glacial epoch.

Its American congener, the mastodon, found its way from Asia to this continent during the Drift period, when, it is believed, land communication existed in what is now Bering's Strait, and perished in a like manner.