AMERICAN MASTODON. 
203 
GREAT AMERICAN MASTODON. 
In the month of August, 1845, whilst excavating marl on the farm 
of Nathaniel Brewster, Esq., six miles west of the village of New- 
burgh, Orange county, N. Y., the workmen struck upon the skull 
of a Mastodon. The work was carefully conducted, and at the close 
of the second day they had succeeded in exhuming the entire skele- 
ton, with the exception of the toes of one foot, which were probably 
carried out with the marl. This is the most entire skeleton of this 
remarkable animal ever found. The bones are in a singularly per- 
fect state of preservation, retaining still a large portion of animal 
matter even in the spongy portions. The skeleton has since been 
arranged and set up, and this has been done with great care and the 
strictest attention to the articulating surfaces of all the bones, which 
we believe has not been the case with others which have been put 
together. Such we believe to be the fact from the drawings we have 
seen of the one arranged by Mr. Peale, and from the description 
given to us of others which we have had no opportunity of seeing. 
The amount of cartilage to be supplied between the vertebra has 
been misconceived, and thus the back has been made much longer 
than in the living animal. Jn the present instance, a perfect gage 
was furnished by two ribs, which, during the life of the animal, had 
become united longitudinally. Each one of these ribs articulated 
with a verteber; and in bringing these articulating surfaces together, 
the exact amount of intervertebral space was found. This, in con- 
nection with the ribs which articulated with two vertebra, determined 
the amount to be supplied ; and thus the back of this skeleton is 
said to be from two to three feet shorter than those which have been 
made according to the fancy of the owners. The intervertebral 
substance is only half an inch in thickness. 
As the discovery of this singularly perfect skeleton of an extinct 
race of animals has excited a very extensive curiosity, it may be 
interesting to many to have a particular description of the condition 
in which it was found. Portions of twelve skeletons of the same 
animal have been discovered in the same county within the present 
century; but in no case have bones enough been found to give a full 
idea of the structure and character of the animal, and in almost all 
cases the bones have been in an advanced stage of decomposition. 
VOL, II.—NO. II. 204 
QUARTERLY JOURNAL. 
Locality and position. Like all others found in this vicinity, this 
was buried in a peat-swamp, but, in this case, of very small dimen- 
sions. The whole peat formation here is only four hundred feet long 
and one hundred and twelve wide, lying between two low ridges of 
slate hills, the whole valley being about two hundred feet wide. 
The clay which underlies the peat bog, descends gradually from 
both sides, and once formed the bottom of the small pond which 
occupied this spot. It slopes down very gradually till within six feet 
of where the bones were found, in which spot it is but six feet below 
the surface. At this point, however, it makes a sudden descent, and 
the bottom cannot be reached by sounding with an iron rod. 
Beginning at the bottom, then, the following are the deposites 
which have gradually formed and filled up the pond : 
1. Mud, more than 10 feet 
2. Shell marl, 3 feet. 
3. A layer of red moss, 1 foot. 
4. Peat, 2 feet. 
Just below No. 3, in the top of the marl, and barely covered by 
it, lay the skeleton. The direction of the backbone was north and 
south. The head was thrown crosswise, so that the tusks pointed 
nearly to the west. Every bone occupied nearly the position it did 
when the animal was alive. The back of the skeleton was upward ; 
each of the vertebras in place, from the first of the neck to the last 
of the loins. The ribs were projected downwards on each side. The 
head wras upon the top of the neck, and the lower jaw slipped a 
few inches to one side. The hindlegs were spread out on each side, 
each bone in its place to the very feet. The whole position was 
precisely that of an animal that had become mired, and perished in 
its ineffectual struggles to extricate itself, and it had doubtless died 
in the place where its bones were found. 
In the midst of the ribs, imbedded in the marl and unmixed with 
shells or carbonate of lime, was a mass of matter composed prin- 
cipally of the twigs of trees broken into pieces of about two inches 
in length, and varying in size from very small twigs to half an inch 
in diameter. There was mixed with these a large quantity of finer 
vegetable substance like finely divided leaves, the whole amounting 
to from four to six bushels. From the appearance of this, and its 
situation, it was supposed to be the contents of the stomach ; and AMERICAN MASTODON. 
205 
this opinion was confirmed upon removing the pelvis, underneath 
which, in the direction of the last of the intestines, was a train of 
the same material about three feet in length and four inches in dia- 
meter. This was composed almost entirely of the twigs, some of 
them not even crushed, and retaining still the form and structure of 
the tree from which they were torn. 
This is by no means a solitary instance of the discovery of this 
matter. The same has been found in connection with other skele- 
tons. In Godman’s Natural History, under the article Mastodon, is 
recorded an instance of the same kind, and the species of plant found 
was detected. He thus quotes from a letter of Dr. Barton : “ Very 
lately, in digging a well near a saltlick in the county of Wythe in 
Virginia, after penetrating about five feet below the surface of the 
soil, the workmen struck upon the stomach of one of those huge 
animals best known in the United States by the name of Mammoth. 
The contents of the viscus were carefully examined, and were found 
to be in a state of perfect preservation. They consisted of half 
masticated reeds (a species of Arundo or Arundinaria, still common 
in Virginia and other parts of the United States), of twigs of trees, 
and of grass or leaves.” 
A good deal of doubt existed at the time and afterwards, as to the 
character of the substance ; but in the case we have now before us, 
there can be no doubt. The appearance of the matter, and the pe- 
culiar position in which it was found, are unquestionable evidence 
of its being what it was supposed to be, the food which the animal 
had eaten. 
History of the animal. iVs far as is known at present, the whole 
race of mastodons is extinct. There is no evidence of their existence 
at this day. But the numerous remains of them found in this coun- 
try, indicate that they have at some period lived in great numbers 
on this continent. At what time this was, we shall consider here- 
after. Their range, however, does not appear to have extended over 
the whole of North America, but to have been confined mostly to 
the rich alluvial vallies. Portions of two skeletons only have been 
found north of Orange county in the State of New-York. East of 
the Hudson river, portions of two have been discovered. Orange 
county, however, seems to have been the northern limit of their 
range, and the Hudson river the eastern boundary. Passing then 
south through New-Jersey, and thence westward through all the 206 
QUARTERLY JOURNAL. 
great western vallies, throughout this whole region the bones are 
found in greater or less abundance. The saltlicks of Kentucky have 
furnished the most of these remains ; and it has been stated, that 
from one of these localities alone, portions of more than one hundred 
skeletons have been removed. This species of mastodon is peculiar 
to this continent, no remains of it having been found in any other 
portion of the globe. 
The first bones and teeth of this animal were found as early as 
1712, at Albany ; and were noticed in the Philosophical Transac- 
tions, in a letter from Dr. Mather to Dr. Woodward. In 1739, a 
French officer, by the name of Longueil, discovered some of the 
bones, teeth and tusks, near the Ohio river; and the next year, 
large quantities of similar bones were washed up by the current of 
the same river. After this time the bones were occasionally found, 
down to the present, but often very much decayed, and never in 
sufficient quantities to make an entire skeleton. The scientific world 
is much indebted to the late Mr. Peale, who, with great labor and 
at much expense, procured, in 1800, sufficient bones to enable him 
to construct a tolerably complete skeleton, which is now in the 
Philadelphia Museum. 
But though the living animal is unknown to us, the aboriginal 
inhabitants of this country seem to have been well acquainted with 
him. Many people are disposed to place very little dependence upon 
Indian tradition ; but however vague such tradition may become in 
relation to particular facts, by long transmission from generation to 
generation, yet it must have something real and true for its origin. 
Such we believe to be the fact in relation to this animal. We shall, 
therefore, give a few of these traditions as concisely as possible. 
In President Jefferson’s Notes on Virginia, we find the following 
tradition of the Indians, in relation to this animal : 
“ That in ancient times a herd of these tremendous animals came 
to the Big Bone Lick, and began a universal destruction of the bear, 
deer, elk, buffaloes, and other animals, which had been created for 
the use of the Indians. 
“ And that the Great Man above, looking down, and seeing this, 
was so enraged, that he seized his lightning, descended on the 
earth, and seated himself on a neighboring mountain, on a certain 
mountain rock, where the print of his feet are still remaining, from 
whence he hurled his bolts among them, till the whole were slaugh- AMERICAN MASTODON. 
207 
tered except the big bull, who, presenting his forehead to the shafts, 
shook them off as they fell, but at length, one of them missing his 
head, glanced on his side, wounding him sufficiently to make him 
mad; whereon springing round, he bounded over the Ohio at a leap, 
then over the Wabash at another, the Illinois at a third, and a fourth 
leap over the great lakes, where he is living at this day.” 
A Mr. Stanley, who was taken prisoner by the Indians, and car- 
ried beyond the western mountains to where a river runs westward, 
says that these bones abound there, “ and that the natives described 
to him the animal to which these belonged, as still living in the 
northern parts of their country.” 
The following we extract from Dr. Kock’s pamphlet on the Mis- 
sourium* : “One man, in 1816, has asserted that his grandfather 
told him he saw one of these animals in a mountain pass when he 
was hunting; and that on hearing its roar, which he compared to 
thunder, the sight almost left his eyes, and that his heart became as 
small as an infant’s.” 
Period of their existence. The opinion is a*very prevalent one, 
that these animals were antediluvian, and most persons reject with 
a sneer the idea that they have lived at a very recent period. But 
the first opinion has no shadow of ground for belief, and all the 
evidence seems to show that they have existed not many centuries 
since. 
Mr. Jefferson, in his Notes on Virginia, reasons thus : “ It may be 
asked why I insert the mammoth as if it still existed ? I ask, in re- 
turn, why I should omit it as if it did not exist ? The northern and 
western parts still remain in their aboriginal state, unexplored and 
undisturbed by us, or by others for us. He may as well exist there 
now as he did formerly, where we find his bones, &c.” The same 
reasoning which he used, will apply, with a diminished force it is 
true, to our own times. There are still vast portions of this conti- 
nent yet unexplored by the white man, and inhabited only by hos- 
tile Indian tribes. Vast gorges of the mountains in the west might 
* Doct. Kock discovered, in 1840, the remains of the animal which he has called 
Missourium theristocaulodon, in the Osage country. The grounds upon which he has 
given it a new name appear to he very questionable, and are by no means sufficient 
to make it any thing more than the Mastodon, the remains of which are so often found 
even as far west as Missouri, any more than to nlake the Hydrarchos from the Zeu- 
gbdon described in our last number- 208 
QUARTERLY JOURNAL. 
still contain the living animal, and yet we be utterly ignorant of his 
existence. But we will not contend for his present existence. We 
will examine briefly the evidence of his having lived within a very 
few centuries. 
In the first place, the testimony of the Indians, but a few years 
back. They stated in the early part of this century, that this animal 
still lived north of the Missouri river. They called it “ Pere du 
boeufs” (father of cattle). But how shall we reply to the question, 
if the animal has lived in these parts of the country within so short 
a time, why did not the early white settlers either see them or hear 
of them from the Indians ? To this we answer, that after the dis- 
covery of this country, the settlements of it took place very slowly, 
and then was principally in those parts which have not apparently 
been in the track of the mastodons. That they did not hear of them 
from the Indians is not wonderful, for there was nothing to excite 
enquiry with regard to them. If a bone of one had been found at 
that period, and thus enquiry started, doubtless something would 
have been ascertained far more distinctly than has since been 
learned. 
That they were not antediluvian, is settled by the fact of their 
being found in a deposit of marl and peat, all of which has been 
formed in modern times, and which is still forming.* Moreover the 
fact that the bones in this skeleton, from Orange county, are so 
fresh, containing a large portion of animal matter, and that the con- 
tents of the stomach and intestines were found unchanged appa- 
rently by time, is strong evidence that this individual has lived at a 
very recent period, and we may put down five hundred years ago 
as the most distant time at which he lived; and we are strongly in- 
clined to the opinion, that if extinct now, they have not been extinct 
one hundred years in the western parts of this country. 
* The rapidity with which this peaty formation is deposited, may be inferred from 
the following fact. Forty years ago, an excavation for marl was made seven feet deep, 
within twenty feet of the spot where these bones were found. By the operation of the 
ordinary natural causes, that pit is now filled to nearly the level of the surrounding 
surface. The deposit must have been much more rapid, at the time that the peat here 
was first formed, when every year large quantities of leaves were accumulated in it, 
besides the rank vegetation which annually grew and decayed there. 
It is a curious fact, also, that after these marl pits become filled with water, though 
unconnected with any stream or pond of water, they in a few years become stocked 
with eels, catfish and sunfish. AMERICAN MASTODON. 
209 
Anatomy of the mastodon. 
The skull. The bones of the skull are wonderfully large, and as 
well preserved as the other bones. The posterior part is flat and 
broad, measuring in height one foot eleven inches, and in width two 
feet nine inches. The foramen magnum for the passage of the spi- 
nal marrow, is three inches and a half in diameter. In the centre of 
the occipital bone are two deep cavities for the insertion of the 
ligamentum nuchce, separated by a thin bony partition. The frontal 
bone is two feet four inches wide, between the orbits of the eyes. 
The outer plate of bone is very hard and three quarters of an inch 
thick, where we find eleven inches and a quarter of cellular bone, 
extending down to the brain. The cavity of the brain is small, oc- 
cupying only the lower portion of the skull. In front of the nares 
(nostrils), between the origin of the tusks, is a cavity as large as 
that of the brain, and is probably the antrum highmorianum. 
The insertion of the tusks into the intermaxillary bones, is two 
feet five inches, extending quite back of the orbits. These tusks 
were ten and a half feet in length, and two feet and an inch in cir- 
cumference where they enter the socket. With regard to the direc- 
tion of the tusks, we are convinced from observation of a number 
of skulls, that their direction is as accidental as the horns of cattle. 
Some follow the first curve, downward and outwards, the points in 
one which we have seen being eleven feet asunder. In the skull of 
this skeleton before us, they first curved downwards and outwards 
till they were seven feet apart, when they curved inwards and 
slightly upwards till they approached at the points within two feet 
of each other. The socket of the tusks is curved and flattened so 
that it was impossible for the tusks to have turned in the sockets, 
during the decay of the soft parts, as is supposed by many to have 
been the case. 
The whole skull, lengthwise, is bounded on all sides by nearly 
straight lines. The lower jaw is nearly straight from the angle to 
the front, and measures in that line two feet ten inches. The con- 
dyloid process by which it is articulated with the head, is distant 
from the coronoid process one foot. In the front of the lower jaw, 
at the commissure, is a small round tooth, eleven inches in length 
and one inch and a half in diameter, and inserted into a socket seven 
inches deep. This is on the left side of the commissure. On the 210 
QUARTERLY JOURNAL. 
right side is a partial socket, as if another tooth had once been there. 
It appears that the young animals had these two teeth, but lost them 
at a later period of life, as the remains of the socket only are found 
in skeletons of old animals. 
The teeth are, in this skeleton, two in each row, making eight in 
all. The front tooth measures three by four and a half inches ; the 
back tooth, three and a half by seven and a half inches. Like the 
elephant, this animal probably changed its teeth during its growth; 
at each change, the back teeth crowding forward, till they eventually 
crowded out the front ones. 
The length of the head, from t)p occiput to the front of the inter- 
maxillary bones, is four feet and one inch, and weighed, with the 
tusks, 694 pounds. 
There are seven bones of the neck, nineteen of the back and three 
of the loins. The first seven bones of the back are characterized 
by very long spinous processes, the longest measuring two feet. 
From the third they diminish in length very rapidly to the eleventh, 
when they are almost lost. The bones of the neck are much more 
upright than in the elephant, giving to the animal the appearance of 
carrying a high head. Atlas, 3 ft. 8 in. in circumference. 
The ribs are forty in number ; twenty on each side, and the 
longest measures four feet and seven inches. The first and second 
ribs on the right side appear to have been broken by some accident 
during the animal’s life. During the process of healing, the first rib 
has formed a bony attachment to the sternum or breast-bone, which 
is a triangular bone of large size and one foot seven inches long. 
The last two ribs on the right side have also been united logitudi- 
nally. The scapula (shoulder-blade) is two feet and ten inches long, 
and two feet and nine inches wide, having a long and sharp acro- 
mion process. 
The humerus (shoulder) is three feet and five inches long, 
three feet and two inches in circumferance at the upper end, and 
three feet and five inches at the lower. The ulna measures two feet 
and three inches, from the articulation at the humerus, to where it 
unites with the foot. The olecranon process is seven inches long, 
and two feet four inches in circumference at the base. The circum- 
ference of the elbow is three feet nine inches. The radius is small 
and slender, and crosses from the inside of the ankle to the front of 
the elbow. The articulating surface of the elbow is one foot three 
and a half inches long, and seven and a half inches wide. AMERICAN MASTODON. 
211 
The bones of the fore-foot resemble in form those of the elephant, 
but project forward instead of being arranged in a perpendicular co- 
lumn, and the toes have evidently possessed great power of flexion. 
The pelvis is a broad massive bone, and was taken up entire. 
It measures, between the illiac extremities, six feet and one inch. 
The pubic and sacro-illiac symphyses are completely united by 
ossification. The pubic bone, from the anterior to the posterior edge, 
measures two feet. The thyroid foramen is nine and a half inches 
long by five inches wide. The diameter from the sacrum to the pubis 
is twenty-two inches ; the transverse diameter nineteen. 
The femur (thigh-bone) is three feet ten inches long, and seven- 
teen inches in circumference at the middle. The head of this bone 
is two feet in circumference ; around the trochanter, three feet. 
The great trochanter is very large, but in place of the lesser tro- 
chanter is only a swelling and roughness of the bone. 
The tibia is two feet six inches long, and two feet seven inches in 
circumference at the top. The articulating surface, where it receives 
the thigh-bone, is one foot transverse diameter. The fibula is two feet 
two inches in length. The bones of the hind-leg resemble in a won- 
derful degree the same bones in man ; and it is not to be wondered 
at, that when these bones have been found, they have sometimes 
been mistaken for the bones of gigantic men. 
The bones of the legs, the tusks and the proboscis in this animal 
are similar to those of the elephant. The structure of the remainder 
of the skeleton is entirely different. The head of the elephant is 
formed of bones more or less rounded throughout. The occiput 
consists of two large lobes of bone, one on each side, with a deep 
groove between. The lower jaw is convex on the lower side, and the 
teeth in that jaw are with the crowns concave from the front back- 
wards, receiving the upper teeth which are convex to fit them. The 
teeth of the elephant are nearly smooth, while in this animal they 
are formed of two rows of conical prominences, from which the 
animal receives its name, the two Greek words of which the name 
is composed signifying a nipple and a tooth. 
It was formerly the opinion that this animal lived partly upon 
flesh. There is, however, satisfactory evidence, from its teeth and 
from the contents of the stomach, that its food was principally the 
small twigs and branches of trees. It had little, if any, lateral 
* VOL. II.—NO. II. 212 
QUARTERLY JOURNAL. 
motion to its lower jaw, and of course could not masticate its food 
very fine. 
All that we know of the habits of the animal is to be inferred from 
its structure, and tradition. Its form, compared with the elephant, is 
apparently about the same as the horse compared with the ox. He 
was probably comparatively a graceful animal in his movements ; 
and with his elevated head, ornamented with such enormous tusks, 
appeared terribly majestic. The opinion of some that he was the 
behemoth of Job, is without any foundation ; yet the description of 
that animal in some respects may well apply to this. 
It will not be denied, we presume, that the extinction of entire 
races of animals is a subject of great interest to man ; that it is a 
phenomenon well calculated to excite inquiry. It is a circumstance, 
too, which seems to be of some consequence to us personally : not 
that any immediate danger, on this score, need be apprehended for 
our own personal safety and well-being ; but it is of such a nature 
as to lead us to reflection and inquiry in regard to the mode of 
operation of those influences which have resulted in such extinction. 
We do not here refer to the extinction of the lower orders of beings, 
the mollusca and Crustacea ; but to that of the higher orders, those 
warm-blooded terrestrial animals which rank in the animal scale 
next to man. Shall we not inquire, then, since the higher animals 
have perished by families, and entire races have become extinct aj 
a very recent period, May not the same influences which operated 
in the case of the warm-blooded terrestrial animals, operate also on 
man as a race, in such a degree as to terminate his career upon the 
earth ? These lost races, whose remains lie buried in the most recent 
beds, at the very surface of the ground which is ploughed and sowed 
by the hand of man, breathed the same atmosphere that we do, 
basked in the same sunlight, drank of the rains of heaven, and 
partook like ourselves in many of the commoner pleasures of life ; 
yet, through the influence of physical agents, entire species have 
passed away ; and had not their bones been durable, their former 
existence would never have been suspected. 
Can we assign a cause for this catastrophe ? Was it a sudden 
tempest that swept over the ancient hills, and laid in one common 
ruin all that then had existence ? Was it an overwhelming flood that 
poured forth the fury of its waters, and drowned the animals quietly 
grazing on the plains and hillsides ? Or did an earthquake rock the 
earth and tear up its foundations ; swallowing a part of the living 
races, and destroying others by noxious vapors emitted from the 
suddenly opened caverns ? Or did some slow and subtle poison 
THE LOST RACES. THE LOST RACES. 
213 
diffuse itself through the living frame, begetting a sluggish motion 
of the blood, destroying the elasticity of the muscles, and gradually 
enfeebling the external senses, till finally the body became an easy 
prey to the elements, and the last individual of the race sank down 
and perished ? Towards the solution of these inquiries, we have no 
evidence save that of analogy. Life begins at a point; radiates from 
that point; gathers strength and power in its progress, till it reaches 
its acme ; then begins to faulter, till finally it turns backward, runs 
a retrograde course, and terminates, as it began, in a point. Species 
commence their course in a single pair of individuals : they multiply 
and increase, until the race attains its maximum of development in 
numbers and physical perfection ; when a stationary period inter- 
venes, and is succeeded by one of decline ; the life-power of the 
species slowly retires, exhausted of its force by its diffusion through 
the great flood of beings which it has served to animate, till finally 
becoming too dilute and feeble to sustain the vital energy, it lingers 
for a moment like the flickering and dim light of an expiring taper, 
and then disappears forever. Nations too arise from a few indivi- 
duals, or from a feeble colony, a score of men perhaps : they press 
onward and become a strong people ; they extend their power on 
all sides, and every successive step serves but to increase the na- 
tional strength and prosperity, until that strength and prosperity 
reach their highest limit; when, as it were in the fulfilment of a law 
of nature, an inevitable decline commences ; the centre of the body 
politic gradually loses its power over the circumferential members ; 
its efforts to supply vitality to the extremes exhaust itself, and it 
falls sooner or later a prey to its own weakness. 
We see this principle illustrated, as we think, in the lost races 
themselves. How often is the geologist able to point to the very 
origin of a race ; not perhaps to the first progenitor, but to the time 
when, like a feeble colony, it began its career in a score of indivi- 
duals only. From such small beginnings, for instance, arose the 
numerous species which have successively tenanted the ancient 
waters of our planet : they grew and increased in numbers, till they 
filled the depths of the sea, and spread themselves on every shore ; 
but though possessing this wide domain, they were not destined to 
hold it forever : in numbers, and in perfection of specific develop- 
ment, they reached the limit assigned by nature, and thence began 
in thei* turn a downward course, dwindled away to a feeble and 
imperfect condition, decreased in numbers, and finally perished, 
never to appear again on this sphere of existence. Recent discoveries 
corroborate the soundness of these views. We observe, perhaps for 
the first time, a single mollusk at the base of the New-York system 
of rocks. As the deposits of this system are piled one upon another, 
this mollusk increases in numbers with every additional ascending 
deposit, and, before the middle of the series is reached, has spread 
so widely, and so countlessly multiplied itself that it nearly fills the 
mass of the rock. From this point upwards, however, no increase, 214 
QUARTERLY JOURNAL. 
but a diminution in the numbers of this same mollusk occurs with 
each succeeding deposit, till a few solitary individuals only remain. 
The relation here stated holds true for both the vertical and the 
horizontal plane, in all the extent of the system of the New-York 
deposits : go east or west, we find always the same order of in- 
crease, decrease, and final extinction of the species. 
We have expended many words in attempting to convey a single 
idea, to exhibit a single fact, which, after all, may be condensed in 
the three words that serve to define a well-known character employed 
in musical notation : crescendo et diminuendo With this 
harmonical symbol before us, our whole idea is comprised in a dia- 
gram ; the complete progress and final close of the march led by 
each earthborn race is expressed in a formula. 
We have been led into the foregoing train of thought, by the discovery of the re- 
mains of a species of deer in the freshwater marl beds of Orange and Greene counties 
in this State. We first obtained the jaw of this extinct species from the marl pit of 
Mr. Stewart in the latter county, and afterwards one of the horns from a similar pit 
in Seotchtown in Orange. This deer was about the size of the reindeer of the north, 
and, like that animal, was provided with a flattened (though more slender) horn ; but 
it differs specifically from the reindeer, in the possession of two brow antlers instead of 
one, on a single shaft, and quite near its base. No other bones have yet been found, 
and hence the height and bulk of the animal have not been accurately determined ; 
but that in this country the genus Cervus contained a species which is now extinct, 
is, by this discovery, placed beyond a doubt. 
But a still more remarkable species has also perished : we allude to the great Irish 
elk, whose remains are found in the same beds as those of the deer just spoken of. 
The horns of this gigantic creature had a spread of ten feet, and hence he must have 
been one of the most majestic animals of the forests of his time. 
Of all the extinct species of quadrupeds, however, the mastodons and elephants are 
the most remarkable. An animal twelve feet high and proportionately long, provided 
with tusks curving upwards and outwards to the extent of ten feet, must have been a 
unique object upon the hills in our vicinity. What their habits were, cannot be well 
determined now ; but we know that they must have been vegetable feeders, and have 
browsed upon trees of no mean height and size. A circumstance of some interest in 
their history is, that they appear to have been confined to the western side of the pre- 
sent valley of the Hudson ; for so far as observations have been made, their remains 
have not been found either north of the Mohawk valley, or east of the Hudson river. 
Although the bones belonging to many diffent individuals have been discovered in 
the counties of Albany and Greene in this State, and in the adjacent counties in New- 
Jersey, still this part of the continent does not appear to have been their favorite haunt. 
We must go into the valley of the Mississippi, if we would form a true conception of 
their former numbers and importance. The Bigbone licks are known the world over, 
as the cemetery of hundreds of these animals. But here they are not solitary and alone : 
numerous bones of other animals, known now to be extinct, lie entombed with them 
in those saline deposits. The horse, the ox, the buffalo, and some others, appear to 
have been their companions, and to have made these spots a favorite resort. Still far- 
ther west, they were equally if not more abundant. The Hclderberg hills seem to have 
been the limits of their wanderings in this direction, the base of the R.ocky m:mntains 
their extreme west, and the valley of the Mississippi the centre of their range. 
The most interesting question in regard to these animals, is that which inquires the 
cause of their extinction. On this question we are not prepared to sustain an opinion, 
nor even to offer one that is any thing like satisfactory to ourselves. If we recur to the 
flood of Noah, we are by no means authorized to believe that we have assigned the 
true cause ; though, upon a superficial view, that catastrophe seems to offer a plausible 
solution. The investigations of geologists show that many deluges' have occurred, at 
different times and on different portions of the earth’s surface. The subject, however, 
is one that is still in a course of investigation : time will unfold her secrets ; and we 
are persuaded that facts bearing directly upon these points will yet be disclosed, which 
shall reveal to us the whole mystery of the lost races.