A MASTODON IN AN OLD BEAVER-MEADOW. 343 



by the ditching. There was in the side of the ditch enough visible 

 before the uncovering to show that the destruction had taken away- 

 much of the base, being nearly all that part of the tusk containing 

 the pulp-cavity. The surface of the soil was carefully removed, 

 and measurements taken. The part uncovered was four feet four 

 inches long. Between this and the place of insertion in the skull was 

 about eighteen inches and for insertion two feet should be allowed 

 when the entire length of each tusk would be seven feet eight 

 inches, and the weight of the ivory in each hardly less than two hun- 

 dred pounds. The tusks had a slight upward curve. 



The digging was continued next day, the whole area being exam- 

 ined. The peculiar dark stain covered a space not less than fifteen 

 feet in length and six feet in width. It was evident that the head was 

 inflected toward the chest. It is pretty certain, then, that a line taken 

 from the base of the trunk to the root of the tail would not be less 

 than seventeen feet. 



The burial-place of this great beast is to me of intense interest. 

 The body lay on its side, on a hard sand bottom, the upper parts being 

 surrounded and but thinly covered with muck, or vegetable peat. I 

 am satisfied that it died on the dry bank of an ancient stream. Now 

 came a singular discovery which served as a key to the difficulty. 

 Lying on the skeleton at different parts were the sticks or heart- 

 remains of red cedars {Juniperus Virginiana, L.) ; they were beaver- 

 logs. Here a singular piece of experience came to my aid. I had 

 quite recently discovered and studied the details of two fossil beaver- 

 dams but two miles west of this place, and the physical features of 

 this mastodon's burying-place were in all respects indicative of a for- 

 mer beaver-dam. In fact, no other hypothesis could account for these 

 sticks, with others of different woods, which have been exhumed in 

 this meadow. It is observable that a pond made by beavers has in 

 time its meadow as a natural consequence, and that, after the pond is 

 deserted by these animals, the dam breaks down slowly, and, as the 

 pond area decreases, the swamp area increases, and a growth of vege- 

 tation sets in which becomes the peat-bog, afterward the meadow. 

 The place where the mastodon lay in course of time became covered 

 by the waters of the pond, for beavers keep lengthening their dam to 

 increase the area of the pond, and only stop so doing when the nat- 

 ural opportunities of the situation are exhausted. Of course, it was 

 only the skeleton of the beast which was buried, and the bones might 

 have been there long before peat-growth began over them. This 

 explains the decomposition of the bones, for peat is antiseptic, and 

 they should have been preserved, but it was a slow burial, and slow 

 decay had long before set in. A curious fact seems to me to confirm 

 the above. The huge air-cells in the bones and the great pulp-cavities 

 of the tusks were packed solid with vegetable matter, but so unlike 

 the imbedding peat as to be remarkable. This packing, which filled 



