82 Dr Rensselaer'*s discovery of the Fossil Mastodon. 



field, and within the influence of frost, have all suff*ered more 

 or less ; but as we proceeded down, they became more sound, 

 and the bones of the legs and feet are perfectly solid, and in 

 excellent preservation. Many of them had small quantities 

 of the phosphates of iron, and of lime, and small crystals of 

 sulphate of lime adhering to them. 



Its position, corresponding with that of the skeleton found on 

 the Wabash, was vertical, the feet resting on a stratum of sand 

 and gravel, (mostly rolled quartz,) and the head to the west- 

 south-west There is every reason for supposing that the ani- 

 mal was mired in that situation, but at what period we have 

 no data even to conjecture. But we have authority for be- 

 lieving that the mastodon was one of the last animals that has 

 become extinct. Zoologists, particularly zoological geologists, 

 consider the doctrine as established, that the successive gene- 

 rations of organized beings that have dwelt upon the exterior 

 of our globe differ from the present generations, in propor- 

 tion as their remains are more or less distant from the present 

 surface ; or, in other words, as the time in which they existed 

 is remote from the present day. Now, according to this, the 

 mastodon differs but little from some one of the living genera- 

 tions, (which we know to be the case,) and the deduction is 

 fair, that if the living animal be not found, of which there 

 seems now very little probability, its race has not long since 

 perished, comparatively speaking. This conclusion is con- 

 firmed in my own mind by our researches after these very in- 

 teresting remains. 



Immediately under the surface, we found bog-iron-ore 

 loosely disseminated ; in other places in the field it existed in 

 abundance. A soft, black, damp earth, containing vegetable 

 fibres, (what the Germans call geest,) continued down four 

 feet from the surface. Beneath this we found a yellowish 

 clay, tinged perhaps from animal decomposition. Below, thin 

 and alternate layers of sand and black earth continued, until 

 we met a small stratum of rolled quartz pebbles covering sand, 

 oii which rested the feet of the animal, about eight and a half 

 feet below the surface. These layers resemble those occurring 

 frequently in Europe, and compose the greater part of our 

 sea-coast, from Long Island to the Mississippi. They form 



