MAMMOTHS AND MASTODONS. 251 



Moreover, the mastodont molar is smaller, and eight of 

 them may be fully in use at one time, while in the ele- 

 phant but four. It is an exceptional circumstance that 

 the succession of molars in both genera is from behind, 

 save that in the mastodon the first two molars are suc- 

 ceeded vertically, according to the law of other mammals. 

 The great mastodon which once roamed over North 

 America is known as the American mastodon {Mastodon 

 Auieyicanus). It seems to have been the dominant pro- 

 boscidian of the New World in the same as^e when the 

 primitive mammoth was dominant in the Old World. 

 Yet another species of mammoth roamed here at the 

 same time as another species of mastodon {Mastodon an- 

 gustidens, the narrow-toothed mastodon) roamed in Eu- 

 rope. Evidence exists that the American mastodon con- 

 tinued in America to as late a date as the primeval mam- 

 moth in Europe, and was, like that, contemporary with 

 the human species. Barton and Kalm both give accounts 

 of discoveries in which some outline of the soft parts of 

 the animal was still preserved. The Indians, moreover, 

 retained very positive and vivid traditions of the masto- 

 don, calling it " the bison's grandfather,*' and related that 

 they had all been slain by the Great .Man because they 

 were destroying the Indians' game. The skeletons of 

 the mastodon are found sometimes standinij erect in beds 

 of peat, marl or mud ; and the writer has observed a 

 skeleton, in one instance, within eighteen inches of the 

 surface, where it would seem it might have been deposited 

 within five hundred years. These remains, like those of 

 the Siberian mammoth, occur under such circumstances 

 as to constrain us to believe that their inhumation has 

 been geologically very recent. And yet it seems probable 



