342 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



found it was a deep depression in the farm, and the site suggested the 

 possibility of an ancient beaver-dam. But in that case a stream should 

 be seen flowing through the middle. There was none there. I learned 

 afterward that formerly there was just such a stream, but that in order 

 to utilize the meadow it had been diverted to one side of the valley or 

 depression, and the channel thus left had been filled up by taking from 

 the banks or higher slopes ; after this it was planted with corn. I 

 found a drain about eighteen inches wide in progress of construction 

 across this meadow. The ditcher had literally cut through a buried 

 monster precisely at a point which took away a part of the bases of 

 the tusks and some portion of the face of the animal. It was indeed 

 a veritable mastodon. Digging under my direction was at once re- 

 sumed. Both tusks were soon fully exposed, and the left one was 

 successfully uncovered and removed to the side of the drain. Before 

 removal I took exact measurements, and fortunate it was that I did, 

 for in a very few minutes after being put on the dry ground it sepa- 

 rated or unfolded, like the concentric layers of an onion, and in a few 

 minutes more began crumbling into powder. The concentric rings 

 thus separated were uniformly a quarter of an inch thick, so that these 

 unfoldings gave no hint of the animal's age, for the ivory was so fine 

 and compact that no smaller divisions were discernible. This splen- 

 did ivory was in consistency like new white cheese, and the surfaces 

 of separation gave the precise feeling to the fingers as when they are 

 passed over a freshly cut piece of soft cheese. The left tusk was 

 removed almost entire ; the right tusk was nearly all removed, and 

 fragments of both were secured, though very soft and unsatisfactory, 

 for upon drying even these selected fragments crumbled to powder. 



Four molars were obtained, which were found in exact relative po- 

 sition to the tusks. So soft were the bones that all further digging 

 only provoked sighs of disappointment. Of course, the position of 

 the two tusks indicated that of the skull. We tried carefully to 

 uncover the head so as to save it, but in vain. The spade took up a 

 spit of dark substance which proved to be the arched forehead of the 

 brute, which also crumbled away after a short time. But a wonderful 

 story that short time told. This high-vaulted forehead might please 

 some amateur phrenologist, but as a cerebral indicator of intellect it 

 was an immense fraud. It was the genuine elephant forehead, " only 

 more so." On cleaning it, by gently pulling out certain tufts of fine 

 roots and vegetable fiber, this great piece of bone was literally honey- 

 combed with air-cells, each one big enough to hold a hickory-nut. 

 These were the extraordinarily developed frontal sinuses. 



But a word about the tusks. The two were in the normal posi- 

 tion, as of the animal lying on its right side, with the back toward 

 the ancient stream. The ditcher had nearly destroyed one of the tusks 

 by attempting to get it out before my arrival. The upper one, that 

 is, the left tusk, had lost all that portion which had been cut through 



