hee } joa & 49, ~ ot 186 Fccession Ro. | Le aM ig | Aimy f I i | | ‘£ = Vv WM ere a. = Oo —_— > oS = a ¢ U . a 4 \ : ~~ : i isc? (pean ne y | l iA ye y | | i 1 M } 1 . : Arey) veel went, I vameadd. tele da ut PS. ' | v is a & (4: 9 oy : me Ls * oe Lil } | va y 7 t & Lon = ‘ ’ . { @ as . pz d . ; ' A 1 "%.. bad | Mbit hi _ i i ; ae ] i] es i a ou erie in r. i ry lig ¥ ties , %i “_ ~*~ ts a ad Ses . -— << Mastodon (14 MASTODON, (¢° MAMMOTH, AND \" \ va \S BY 3’ P. MACLEAN, ‘ . AUTHOR OF ‘‘A MANUAL OF THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN.” WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. SECOND EDITION. CINCINNATI: ROBERT CLARKE & CO. 1880, Ga — ry i ¢ . oy ’ eee e ‘ ‘ } - } I ‘ ar a ; Fh . } ae es; i : on 3 k : j i re « a Ms ¢ é ; ] BS tea . s: ae ‘ f - ied & . . i n a“ MUREUN TAROLi yy j a ; Wy Eig o> aah PREFACE. The interest awakened by the discoveries and conclu- sions of the working geologist is increasing every year. Many of the facts which would be acceptable to general readers are placed beyond their reach, being recorded only in technical works or else in the memoirs of learned socie- ties. The compiler of this little book believes that a work ‘of this kind will be welcomed by the multitude. It is a subject which must needs be of general interest. The usual hand-books on geology give but a meagre account of these colossal proboscidians, which serve only to arouse an interest without being able to gratify it. In tracing out the evidences of the co-existence of man with the mammoth and mastodon, it is not attempted to prove the great antiquity of man. The compiler has already done that in another work, entitled “A Manual of the Antiquity of Man.” In the preparation of this work I have relied Sintec on Dr. J. C. Warren’s “Mastodon Giganteus,” and have freely used Lyell’s ‘‘Principles of Geology,” Mantell’s “Wonders of Geology” and “Fossils of the British Mu- seum,’ Meunier’s “Life in the Primeval World,” “The American Naturalist,’ Foster’s ‘‘Pre-Historic Races,” Figuier’s ‘‘World Before the Deluge,” Leidy’s “Extinct Vertebate Fauna of the Western Territories,’ Lieut. Wheeler’s Report of Surveys West of 100th Meridian, Vol. IV; Southall’s “Epoch of the Mammoth,” besides quite a number of other works. COMTEN TS. PART I. THE MASTODON. SECTION, PAGE. RCO CM ae sot we ae Ce, ee or eee eeneneral Description............6+0e4.- ae te NR ge Sig its soe ei s's Dae odie taps peo ste 10 Wie Name....... 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GENERAL DESCRIPTION. ‘Built high and wide, his solid bones surpass The bars of steel; his ribs are ribs of brass; His port majestic and his armed jaw Give the wide forest and the mountain, law. Earth sinks beneath him as he moves along To seek the herbs, and mingle with the throng. See with what strength his hardened loins are bound, All over proof, and shut against a wound!”’ This description of the behemoth of the book of Job, as given by Dr. Young, may very properly be applied to the mastodon which once roamed through the primeval forests of America, and certain parts of Europe and Asia. - We know it only from its remains, which have been found in various localities. Language is insufficient to give an adequate idea of the grandeur and massiveness of the complete skeleton. It towers far above the animals with which we are so familiar; and even the elephant, although nearly of the same height, has a frame which may be called delicate in comparison. It belonged to the elephantine family, though, in many respects, differing from the living specimens. It was not superior to the elephant in height, but its limbs were thicker, the abdomen slenderer, the length greater, and the head more massive and longer. 10 THE MASTODON. The tusks were four in number, and those of the upper jaw curved upwards, and sometimes attained the length of twelve or thirteen feet. Besides the regular intermax- illary tusks, in one species at least, there are two very smail ones which make their appearance at the very ear- liest period of life, but shortly give way for the permanent ones. As has been already stated, two tusks make their appearance in the lower jaw, only one of which became developed, that in the adult male; both were early shed in the female. These tusks form one of the distinctive characteristics which separate the mastodon from the ele- phant. The structure of the teeth also constitutes a very important part in the anatomical description, and widely differs from those of the rest of the elephant family. While there are certain varieties of the mastodon which are easily separated into distinct groups, yet there are others not so well marked, belonging to the transitional rank between the mastodon type and the elephant type. ' II. HISTORY. The first authentic history of the discovery of the re- mains of the mastodon dates back to the year 1615. Near the castle of Chaumont, in Dauphine (France), some bones were found in a sand-pit, which were purchased by a sur- geon named Mazuya, who pretended that he had discov- ered them in a brick tomb, thirty feet long by fifteen broad, inscribed with the name of Teutobocchus Rex, a chief of the Cimbri (Northern Germany), who was defeated by the Roman commander, Caius Marius, 102 B. C. He also claimed to have found in the same tomb fifty medals bear- ing the effigy of Marius. Mazuya exhibited this skeleton in the cities of France and Germany. Riolan, an anat- omist, after having examined the benes of the pretended king, pronounced them to be those of an elephant. This gave rise to an animated controversy in which numerous The Mastodon Restored, 7, G4 foo mm Fe, THE MASTODON. 13 pamphlets were exchanged on the subject. In the year 1832 the skeleton was removed from Bordeaux to the Mu- seum of Natural History in Paris, where De Blainville recognized it as belonging to the mastodon. The gigantic bones discovered in 1705, thirty miles south of Albany, New York, were regarded as additional proof of the ancient stories relative to the past existence of a race of giants. One of the teeth was shown to Governor Dudley, of Massachusetts, who was “perfectly of opinion that the tooth will agree only to a human body, for whom the flood only could prepare a funeral; and without doubt he waded as long as he could keep his head above the clouds, but must, at length, be confounded with all other creatures.” ** The bones of the mastodon found near Santa Fe’ de Bogota, in the “Field of Giants,” were formerly taken for human remains. And, in like manner, the great quantity of bones of this animal found in the Cordilleras originated the Spanish tradition that Peru was formerly inhabited by men of colossal stature. The mastodon first attracted the attention of the scien- tific men of Europe about the middle of the last century. M. de Longueil, a French officer, in 1739, while traversing the forests bordering on the Ohio River, discovered in Kentucky some bones, which, on account of their magni- tude, excited his curiosity to such an extent that he carried them along with him, and on his return to France presented them to D’Aubenton and Buffon. It is worthy of notice that these were the first relics of the mastodon which received the attention of the scientific men of Europe, and also the first taken thither. D’ Aubenton ascribed the thigh- bone and tusk to the elephant, but attributed the teeth to the hippopotamus. On the other hand, Buffon declared that the teeth as well as the tusk and thigh-bone belonged to an elephant which had existed ‘in the primitive ages * Extract from Governor Dudley’s letter to Cotton Mather. 14 THE MASTODON.. of the world. He regarded it as having been from four to | six times the size of the existing elephant; an estimate he was led to make by supposing that all the teeth, instead of springing up in succession, existed in a continuous row. The discovery of these remains not only produced a pro- found impression in Europe, but caused naturalists to en- tertain the fundamental idea that extinct species of animals were exclusively peculiar to the ancient ages of the world. It also quickened an interest in searching for these remains, and when, in 1763, the English became masters of Canada, they sought eagerly to obtain them. In 1767, Crogan, the geographer, having traversed the region of the Ohio, sent many cases of these relics to London, addressing them to different naturalists. About a mile and a half from the \\ Ohio, in the State of Kentucky, he found in a salt-marsh six immense skeletons interred upright. A femoral bone of one of these skeletons weighed one hundred pounds, being four feet and a quarter in length. The reception of these bones in Europe quickened the interest already — manifested, and which has never ceased; and so prominent has it been that up to the present time more than forty eminent naturalists have written particularly on the subject. Upon the theory advanced by Dr. Hunter that the mas- todon was carnivorous, Goldsmith, in his “Animated Na- ture,” concludes his remarks as follows, which are amusing under our present knowledge: ‘As yet this formidable creature has evaded our search; and, if indeed, such an animal exists, it is happy for man that it keeps at a dis- tance; since what ravage might not be expected from a creature, endued with more than the strength of the ele- phant, and all the rapacity of the tiger!’ Cuvier gave the subject his careful attention, and to him we are indebted for the first elaborate account of the bones of the Mastodon Giganteus. He did not have the ad- ts ae . ae? o> Be een pon Ens THE MASTODON. 15 vantage of a complete skeleton, for only fragments or parts were known until 1801. In that year Charles W. Peale, after much persevering labor, produced one nearly com- plete from the morasses of Orange county, New York. His son, Rembrandt Peale, published, in London, in 1803, a description of this skeleton, in a pamphlet of ninety-one pages, with the title, “An Historical Disquisition on the Mammoth, or, Great American Incognitum, an Extinct, Immense, Carnivorous Animal, whose Fossil Remains have been found in North America.” This skeleton occupied _@ prominent place in Peale’s Museum at Philadelphia, until 1849, when it suddenly disappeared. It is believed to have fallen into the hands of Professor Kaup, of Darm- stadt, Germany. (For description see Appendix). In the year 1840, Dr. Albert Koch discovered a skeleton of the mastodon in Benton county, Missouri, near the banks of the Pomme-de-Terre River, about ten miles above its junction with the Osage. The bones were im- bedded in a brown sandy deposit full of vegetable matter, with recognizable remains of the cypress, tropical cane, and swamp moss, stems of the palmetto, etc., and this covered by beds of blue clay and gravel to a thickness of about fifteen feet. Dr. P. R. Hoy* ctaims to have visited the spot very soon after this discovery had been made, and declares the excavation to have been fifteen feet in diameter and six feet in depth, and the skeleton was struck upon at a depth of two feet. Dr. Hoy’s state- ment, which was written to disprove that of Dr. Koch, would force the skeleton into a space of only four feet in depth, which supposition is only admissible by presuming that the skeleton had been broken up and afterwards washed there. Out of the bones of this skeleton, together with many belonging to other individuals, Dr. Koch con- structed an enormous osteological monster, and named it * * American Naturalist,’’? Vol. V. 16 | THE MASTODON. the “‘Missourium, or Leviathan of the Missouri.” This he placed on exhibition in London, and soon afterwards sold it to the Trustees of the British Museum, where it was overhauled and properly mounted by Professor Owen. An illustration of this skeleton, as it appeared in the re ee ee Ee ee Skeleton of the Mastodon Giganteus from Missouri, now in the British Museum. — Museum, is given in Fig. 3. It has been suggested that the two scapule now forming a part of this skeleton, and the two detached ones, are in reality the bones of the mam- moth; and Dr. Koch may have dug up the remains of both these niet from the same deposit. The skeleton so minutely described by Dr. J. C. Warren, in his work entitled “Mastodon Giganteus,” was discovered near Newburgh, New York, in the summer of 1845. The spot where the skeleton was found is situated in a small THE MASTODON. 17 swampy valley, where animals were not infrequently en- trapped and mired. The summer of 1845 had been un- usually dry; many small lacustrine deposits were exposed to the drouth, which afforded the farmers an opportunity for removing their contents to fertilize the neighboring fields. While some laborers were removing the contents of this small valley they struck upon the skull of the mas- todon. At once they suspected what it was, and then proceeded with great care until the whole of the skeleton had been obtained, with the exception of a portion of the sternum, a few bones of the feet, and a number of the caudal vertebrze, some of which were recovered afterwards. The animal evidently had been mired, for the anterior ex- tremities were extended under and in front of the head, as if the animal had stretched out its arms in a forward direction in order to'extricate itself, and the posterior ex- tremities were extended forward under the body. In this morass, scarcely covered by the soil and a few feet of water, this animal had remained undisturbed by any intrusion for unknown ages. The bones were in an almost perfect state of preservation. Mastodon bones, when discovered, are usually black, but these were of a brown color, like _ those of a recent human skeleton, which had been in use a considerable length of time. The bones after having been cleansed and dried, were articulated by Dr. Prime, and afterwards exhibited in New York anda number of New England towns, and then, came into the possession of Dr. Warren. As the skeleton was not properly put together, Dr. Warren secured the services of Dr. Shurtleff, who dis- articulated and re-arranged the bones—a work which was successfully completed after an unremitting labor of four weeks. (For description see Appendix). f III. NAME. When the bones of the mastodon were first discovered in quantity they were supposed to belong to the same ani- 18 THE MASTODON. mal as the fossil elephant of Siberia, and for a long time it was called the mammoth. It also received the name of “The Great American Incognitum.” Its present name was given to it by Cuvier, who designated it by the form of the tooth—the word mastodon being derived from the two Greek words, mastos, nipple, and odous, tooth, or nipple- tooth. Dr. William Hunter, having been misled by a par- tial view of the organization of the teeth and their appar- ent similarity to the teeth of the carnivora, was of opinion that the points of these massive organs were destined to crush the bones of smaller animals, hence he called it the — “‘Carnivorous Elephant.” The mastodon of North Amer- ica having been the first to receive attention, to it Cuvier added the specific term Giganteus, or ‘‘ Gigantic Mastodon.” The remains were found bordering on the Ohio, and on this account Buffon called it the Mastodon Ohioticus. In 1793 Pennant designated it by the name of Elephas Ameri- canus, or American Elephant; Blumenbach, in 1797, named it Mammut Ohioticum, or the Mammoth of Ohio; Adrian ~ Camper proposed naming it Elephas Macrocephalus, or Long- headed Elephant. As the epithet Ohioticum was used be- fore Giganteus, Dr. Falconer favored the former term. It has also been called Mastodon Magnum, or Great Mastodon. It seems that the name Mastodon Giganteus should be given to the principal American species, for, of all the different varieties, it is the largest, and this name very appropriately designates it. IV. RANGE. No extinct quadruped has been more widely diffused over the globe than the mastodon. It has extended from the tropics both south and north into temperate latitudes, and its bones have been found in vast numbers throughout the plains of North America, from north of Lake Erie to the Gulf on the south. There were mastodons peculiar to THE MASTODON. 19 Central and South America, and still other varieties have been discovered in England, France, Switzerland, Ger- many, Spain, Italy, Greece, in Asia Minor, and in several parts of India. It is a little remarkable that scarcely any remains have been found east of the Hudson, and none east of the Con- necticut River. Some bones have been found near New Britain, and two teeth thirteen miles north of New Haven. But these are exceptional instances. There certainly must have been some reasons why the mastodon did not.choose to penetrate the woods of New England. It may have been that the Hudson served as a partial barrier to its passage farther east; and, besides, the climate may have been less desirable than the milder regions of the South and West, or a particular kind of vegetation may have been wanting which it fed upon. Stragglers or small troops penetrated into Canada, but the probability is that these relics, which occur outside the natural range, only prove the disposition of the animal to wander. A vast number of bones have been collected in New York, Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, the Carolinas, Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri, California, and Oregon. The most celebrated locality is Big Bone Lick in Kentucky. This marsh is about twenty-three miles below Cincinnati, about four miles from the Ohio, and nearly opposite the mouth of the Great Miami, and situated in a nearly level plain, in a valley bounded by gentle slopes. The general course of the stream, which meanders through this plain, is from east to west. The bog is many acres in extent, but was much larger before the surrounding forest was cleared away. ‘The greater number of the bones have been taken from the black mud, about twelve feet below the level of the creek. The bones belonging to more than one hun- “ dred mastodons have been found there, besides about l- twenty-five of the mammoth, some of the megalonyx, and 20 THE MASTODON. a species of the stag, bison, and horse. The greatest depth of the mud has never been ascertained; it is composed chiefly of clay, with a mixture of calcareous matter and sand, and sulphate of lime with some animal matter. At various depths layers of gravel occur. Jn speaking of this locality, Sir Charles Lyell says, in his “Travels in North America”’: “‘There are two buffalo paths or trails still ex- tant in the woods, and both lead directly to springs: the one which strikes off in a northerly direction from the Gum Lick, may be traced eastward through the forest for several miles. Itis three or four yards wide, and only partially overgrown with grass, and sixty years ago was as bare, hard, and well-trodden, as a high road. It is well known that during great drouths in the Pampas of South America, the horses, deer, and cattle throng to the rivers in such numbers that the foremost of the crowd are push- ed into the stream by the pressure of others behind, and are sometimes carried away by thousands, and drowned. In their eagerness to drink the saline waters and lick the salt, the heavy mastodons and elephants seem in like man- ner to have pressed upon each other, and sunk 1 in the soft ' quagmires of Kentucky.” V. CONDITION OF THE BONES. The bones have been found in various conditions, some being almost perfect and others crumbling on being hand- led. In Europe the bones are more fragmentary and are rarely met with. This is due to their greater antiquity, for it is well established that the American variety con- tinued to flourish long after the European mastodon had become extinct. Many causes have operated in the pre- - gervation of these remains, among which are the solutions of lime, silex, and iron. The bones of the mastodon gigan- teus are scarcely ever found in a mineralized condition, and the preservation in many instances is due to silex. The preservation is also often due to their immersion in water to THE MASTODON. 21 _ such a depth as to prevent the contact of air, and in other eases are protected by superincumbent earth which resists * the tendency to decomposition. In the salt-licks it is due to their having been impregnated with the chloride of sodium, which has a greater power of preventing de- composition than ordinary soil. ‘Dr. C. T. Jackson made an analysis of a portion of the vertebral bone of the Newburgh skeleton, after being dried at 300° Fahr., with the following result: < Animal matter (bone cartilage)......00+s-ccersessereerereeeeseees 27.08 Bone earth (phosphate and carbonate of lime) and phos- Phate Of iON .....seeserrereereeeees pulewing / anda wetemade Wivacsen 6 42.27 100.00 “A portion of the bone with cancelli yielded, by drying, at a little above 212° Fahr. ETE cca t cay codecs veces aMben dee dapsickiw Gdvisahlnbwsacbaastenssessess 6 Bone earth (phosphate and carbunate of lime) and phos- MALS OF TTOI 0... sae. ceive secees nmesseas vanes cenens dnegecnve ove seeneees G4. MET MAGE C suas evcnss ovescsesesereee neccnsenssaceus sevensessen srenssseencoss 30 100 “On burning the bone, the ash which remains is of a beautiful blue color, owing to the presence of phosphate of iron, which appears to have been infiltrated into the bone from the marl surrounding the skeleton.” One of the skeletons found in Wythe county, Virginia, preserved the outlines of its trunk, and another in Illinois, the fleshy part of the mouth in a tolerably good condition. VI. THE TEETH. The vast number of teeth which have been discovered in a good state of preservation, received early attention, and their structure and form have aided very materially in assigning to the mastodon its true position in the econo- my of nature. The teeth are nearly rectangular in form, and present, on the surface of their crown, great conical 22 THE MASTODON. tuberosities or processes with rounded points, disposed in — Figure 4. pairs to the number of four or — five, according to the species. — An illustration of the grind- ing tooth of the M. giganteus is given in Figure 4. 3 The teeth are composed of dentine and enamel, the lat- ter being spread over the Grinding Tooth of the transverse ridges not filled M. Giganteus. ; : : : up with cement as in the ele-. phant. The teeth have no relation whatever to the car- nivora; for, although having an external covering of en- amel, they are destitute of the longitudinal, serrated cut- ting edge, as exhibited in the flesh-eaters, and by use the protuberances become truncated into a lozenge form. The whole structure of the teeth fitted them for the grinding and mastication of tough and hard vegetable substances. The number of the teeth, in some species, was six on each side of each jaw, making in all twenty-four. They did not all appear at the same time, but were developed in succession, in proportion to the waste of those which pre- ceded. The upper teeth are a little wider than the lower. crown of the tooth, and the — The first three are wider behind than in front; the two next, square, and the last terminates in a blunt point. Eight deciduous, or milk teeth, two on each side of each jaw, are developed soon after birth, and shed at an early period. Soon after these teeth make their appearance, a third deciduous tooth is produced, somewhat larger and more complicated, constituting the first three ridged, six- pointed molar; then follows a fourth of the same form as the third, though greater in size. Sometimes these four teeth in each side of each jaw, sixteen in all, are found co-existing. Following the fourth tooth a fifth is devel- THE MASTODON. 23 oped, still larger in size. Before the appearance of the fifth, and in most cases before the fourth shows itself, one or more of the first teeth have disappeared. The sixth and last tooth, which occupies the whole side of the jaw, is much larger and different from any of the others. It is about ten inches in length, four in breadth, twenty inches around the neck, and weighing from ten to twelve pounds. The crown is divided into four or five ridges, with its eight or ten points and furrows more deeply cleft than in the other teeth, and the ridges larger and broader. A supple- mentary, or seventh tooth, was discovered in Michigan in 1854. It has the general characteristics of the fifth tooth of the MZ. giganteus. This succession of teeth was necessary, because the ani- mal required great quantities of food, and the prodigious labor imposed upon the molars could only have resulted in impairing the tooth, and the molar, thus employed in crushing and bruising the coarse vegetable substances, gradually wore out both in thickness ard length. During this wearing and wasting away, another is developed, which pushes the active tooth before, in the direction of the length of the jaw. By this method the old root is broken and soon the tooth gives way, making room for the newer and stronger one. It should be noted that ir the M. angustidens and M. lon- girostris there is an additional pre-molar tooth situated at the root of the second milk-tooth. VII. FOOD. The contents of the stomach of the Newburgh mastodon were described by Dr. Prime, as follows: ‘In the midst of the ribs, embedded in the marl and unmixed with shells or carbonate of lime, was a mass of matter composed principally of the twigs of trees broken into pieces of about _ two inches in length, and varying in size from very smal! 24 THE MASTODON. 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 from four to six bushels. From the appearance of this, and its situa- tion, it was supposed to be the contents of the stomach; and this opinion was confirmed on removing the pelvis, — underneath which, in the direction of the last of the in- testines, was a train of the same material, about three feet in length and four inches in diameter. A portion of this was examined under the microscope by Professor Gray who concluded that the ‘woody matter consisted of twigs of some corniferous tree or shrub, and probably of some kind of spruce or fir.’ ”’ Immediately around and beneath the bones of the mas- todon found near Goshen, New York, was a stratum of coarse vegetable stems and films resembling chopped straw, or rather the drift stuff of the sea; for in it were broken fibres of conferva (alge, or water-plant), like those of the Atlantic shore. The skeleton discovered in Wythe county, Virginia, at a depth of six feet, and resting on a bed of limestone, con- tained, according to Bishop Madison, in the middle of the bones a partly masticated ball of small twigs, grasses, and leaves, among which was recognized a kind of reed still common in Virginia, and the whole was enveloped in a kind of sac which was undoubtedly the stomach of the animal. There is every evidence then to show that the mastodon: was a vegetable feeder, and subsisted on the coarse as well as the tender branches of trees, with their leaves, on rushes and other aquatic plants. It has been conjectured that one reason why they lived along the banks of the rivers was to avail themselves of the roots of trees which grew along the edges or borders of the marshes, and which could be easily dug up or pried out by the tusks. Some THE MASTODON. 25 varieties may have partially subsisted on the succulent roots of certain trees, but there is very strong evidence that all did not do so, nor even upon the shorter grasses. The mastodon of Mt. Pentelicus could not conveniently have touched the earth with its trunk, owing to its long symphysis and tusks, thus being forced to find its nourish- ment at a certain distance from the ground. If analogy alone is to be considered, it might be concluded, judging from the shape of the head of several varieties, that the mastodon never fed upon roots. Although their teeth were adapted for crushing hard substances, and mastica- ting the roots of trees, yet the hippopotamus, with teeth somewhat similar, never feeds upon roots, but exclusively on reeds and herbs. VIII. HAIR. Were we to judge alone from the northern region where this animal has been found, and the food upon which it subsisted, we would be forced to conclude that it was cov- ered with hair. It is well known that the living elephant is almost hairless, and yet the elephants of India which live on elevated and cool districts are more hairy than those of the lowlands; that the heat causes these animals to be hairless, and in such districts where a covering is needed it is supplied. Were it probable that the mastodon lived in the northern part of the country in summer only, and retreated to the south in winter, and the climate not having perceptibly changed since it became extinct, the cool nights and sudden changes in the weather would de- mand that a covering of hair should be supplied. How- ever, this question has not been left to conjecture, for the hair has been found. Around and in the immediate vicin- ity of the skeleton found at Scotchtown, Orange county, New York, were locks and tufts of hair, of a dun-brown, from an inch and a half to seven inchesin length. In 26 THE MASTODON. Montgomery county, same State, the hair was found of a dun color, and three inches long. Both skin and hair ac- companied the bones found sixty feet beneath the surface, near the entrance of the Wabash ‘River into the Ohio. IX. DIFFERENT SPECIES. The number of the varieties of the mastodon have been variously given by authors, from four to thirty, owing to the differences which each thought should constitute a dis- tinct. species. Many of these differences are not based upon the comparisons of skeletons, but upon some slight modification of a tooth. ‘The wisdom of attempting to found a new species upon some slight variation of a tooth, or some other member, is to be doubted. The slight modi- fication of a tooth of any well marked family is an uncer- tain guide. A writer in the Dental Cosmos cites statistics showing that the wisdom tooth in man is being gradually lost; that “‘of three hundred and twelve persons over twenty-six years of age, fifty-two had none at all; forty- four had deficiencies in upper and lower; serena ame had deficiencies in upper only; thirty-two ald deficiencies in lower only; twenty-one with deficiencies were over fifty years of age. In three hundred and twelve persons, three . hundred and four wisdom teeth were absent.” It would be folly in such cases to assign these people to a new species of mankind. The compiler of this work still retains the second of the two temporary molars of the right side of the lower jaw, and, hence, never had the second bicuspid. On consulting one of the best informed dentists, concerning this tooth, he was assured that such was not uncommon. Upon the plan, adopted by some comparative anatomists, those of us having only three bicuspids in the lower jaw, then, must be assigned to a “ different and well marked species of mankind.” In the following lst of the different varieties of the mastodon an attempt is made to explain the meaning of the F ae on / 7 oy NAME. EXPLANATION. EPOCH. LOCALITY. Mastodon Angustidens (Cuvier)........ Narrow-tooth Mastodon......... { Fe raven ts eee aA ?liocene......../France. rs Longirostris (Kaup) x (eaten, ai ae Roe Long-nose ne SA | LOT: “is Boron Uilaye)y