212 FAUNA AMERICANA. 



discovered only in North America, are in some 

 instances better preserved than most other fossils, 

 though this depends, in a great measure, on the 

 nature of the soil from whence they are disinterred. 

 They are most frequently met with beneath the 

 surface of dried marshes, situated in the valleys 

 of the largest rivers, as the Mississippi, Missouri, 

 Hudson, Ohio, &c. They not unfrequently occur 

 in the State of New York and New Jersey in dilu- 

 Tial deposites. The most perfect and largest spe- 

 cimen of a molar tooth we have yet seen, was 

 fished up from the ocean at Long Branch, on the 

 shore of New Jersey; now in the cabinet of Dr. 

 Morton. 



The remains of this extinct species have not 

 been found south of lat. 31, or north of 43, near 

 to lake Erie. The colour of the enamel is found 

 to vary with the soil in which they occur. 



Besides the present, five other species of this 

 genus have been described by M. Cuvier, from 

 South America and Europe. 



Among a collection of fossils, such as the Elk, 

 Buffaloe, &c. lately presented by Maj. Long, from 

 Big-bone-lick, in the state of Kentucky, is the 

 molar tooth of a species of Mastodon somewhat 

 drfTerent from the many others we have examin- 

 ed, and which approaches in some respects, the 

 Mastodon tapiroides, of Cuvier; though the speci- 

 men is not sufficiently perfect to enable us to 

 decide with certainty. 



