104 NEW-YORK FAUNA. 



4. At Geneseo, Livingston county, (see Am. Jour. Vol. 12, p. 381,) the greater part of a 

 skeleton was found in a marsh two feet and a half below the surface, in vegetable mould, 

 and resting upon a bed. of fine white gravel. 



5. In 1834, the molar tooth of this species was found near Jamestown, Chautauque county. 

 This is stated in the 27th volume of the American Journal of Science to have been two and 

 a half inches long and one inch broad, and to have been found ten feet below the surface. 



6. A fine portion of the lower jaw of a young mastodon, from- the town of Montgomery, 

 Orange county. This specimen enlarged our knowledge of the dentition of the mastodon, 

 exhibiting two short straight tusks from four to six inches long. It would appear that these 

 lower incisors are in some instances permanent for a considerable period ; but whether this is 

 a sexual characteristic, or an accidental case of anomaly, is not yet determined. Upon this 

 specimen, however, the reader will find an attempt made to construct a new genus under the 

 name of Tetracaulodon. 



7. In the town of Shawangunk, Ulster county. 



8. At Perrinton, near Rochester, Monroe county. 



9. At Coeymans, Albany county. 



10. At Hinsdale, Cattaraugus county, a tusk was found seventeen feet beneath the surface. 

 The soil was composed of alternate strata of sand and gravel. 



11. In 1841, in a bed of marl three miles south of Le Roy, weighing two pounds. 



12. A tooth was found in digging a mill-race on Goat Island, Niagara county, twelve or 

 thirteen feet below the surface. 



The Great Mastodon, or Mammoth* as it is sometimes improperly called, equalled or 

 exceeded the Elephant in bulk, and greatly resembled him in shape. The greatest difference 

 in this latter particular was in the elevation of the fore shoulders, while in the elephant the 

 back was regularly arched. Cuvier, from an examination of the situation and direction of the 

 pelvis, inferred that the belly must have been smaller, and consequently the intestines less 

 voluminous than in the elephant ; and this, in connection with the structure of the teeth, leads 

 us to. the conclusion that the mastodon did not exclusively feed on leaves, limbs and tops of 

 young trees. The position of the molars, which diverge in front from each other, also varies from 

 those of the elephant, and much more nearly resembles those of the hog and hippopotamus. 

 To these animals it would seem that he is still farther allied, in his fondness for swamps and 

 marshy places, where his bones are for the most part found under circumstances which lead 

 to the irresistible conclusion that he lived and perished in those places. It was at first 

 supposed that it was exclusively a northern animal, and like the fossil elephant of Siberia, 



* The impropriety consists merely in using a term which had been specially applied by the inhabitants of Siberia to a fossil 

 elephant ; but as the two fossil animals are both gigantic, and nearly allied, we saw no reason for announcing in characters as 

 large as a modern play-bill, the following label over the bones of the Mastodon in the Collection of the Garden of Plants at 

 Paris: " Le Grand Mastodon, improprement nomrr.e Mammovth par les Anglo-Amcricains" ! We believe this offensive label 

 has been recently removed. 



