140 KEMARKS ON THE MAMOTH. 



and natural hiftory at the college of Columbia, lays on this oc-» 



Queftion as to cation, that it is difficult to refolve the queftion ; " Why Pro^ 



final caufes. vidence fhould have deftroyed this fpecies, which it was 



pleafed to create ?" Yet if it was voracious, it is happy for the 



human fpecies that it has by any means become extinft. 



The animal has \^ e m reafonably doubt the affertion of thofe authors who 



never been leen * ■ ,- -r* rr i ^ ■ » • 



within human affirm, that certain lavages, Ruffians and Greenlanders, have 



memory or tra- { een this animal living, and that it ftill exifts in the north. All 

 that has been tranfmitted by tradition to the oldeft Indians who 

 have communication with the United States, and from whom 

 information has been fought concerning this object, is quite 

 fabulous, and does not offer even a fliadow of probability. Mr. 

 Jefferfon, now Prefident of the United States, formerly paid 

 great attention to this fubject. (See his Account of Vir- 

 ginia.) 



Conje&ural re- It is certain that in Siberia and in Greenland, where fimilar 

 foffil bones have been found, no one has brought proof of 

 having feen this animal living. We cannot fuppofe it to be 

 petaceous or amphibious, of the nature of the hippopotamus, 

 as there are Sufficient reafons to prove the contrary. Mr. 

 Cuvier, whofe researches into the extinct fpecies of animals 

 are no lefs curious than fcientific, diftingui flies the animal of 

 Siberia, which affords foffii ivory, from the mamoth, which 

 latter differs principally from the former on account of its mag- 

 nitude, and the points of its grinders, &c. 



An entire fkele- Since the time of our having received details on this fubject 

 (fee the New York Medical Repx>fUory, Vol. IV.) and what 

 we have related elfewhere (fee the third edition of Guthrie's 

 Geography, in French, Vol. VI. page 225 agd 262, publifhed 

 by Langlois at Paris), an. account has been, publifhed in the 

 American papers in 180J, that Jylr. Wiljiam Peal, proprietor 

 of the mufeum at Philadelphia, having, collected the bones 

 found in the county of Orapge, in. the (late of New. York, had 



twelve feet high, fucceeded informing a flyeleton, the, height of which, is twelve 



}eV tS iThl\f rfeet; the head k eing f ° ur feet a . nd a half -in. length, and the 



j on g. tufks ten feet ; the other pajts being, in the feme proportion. 



Local fituation Almoft all thefe bpnes have been found in calcareous earth. 



of thefe enor- T} 1C bones of the megalonix, or great claw, Qf which Mr. 

 Jefferfon lias given a defcription, were found in caverns of 

 lime ftone and chalk in Tennefee. The other enormous bones 

 of the megatherium, found in fuch great quantities in the c ( ov\n T 

 ty of Ulfter, of which Sylvanus Miller, Efq. has given fome. 



detail 



