268 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



meant for colder regions, the whole race of which for 

 reasons unknown has become extinct. Daubenton and 

 other savans subscribed to this opinion, and Mr. Pen- 

 nant even believed this indeterminate animal might 

 yet be found somewhere in the interior, unexplored 

 parts of America, and therefore in his Synopsis called 

 it the American elephant. The matter wants further 

 clearing-up, + if indeed remains of the hippopotamus 

 are not found mixed with those of the elephant on the 

 Ohio, thus giving rise to errors. At Pittsburg I saw 

 in the possession of an artillery-officer a thigh bone, a 

 tusk, and a molar-tooth, which he himself had brought 

 thence. The thigh bone, notwithstanding it was quite 

 dry and had lost something here and there of its sub- 

 stance, weighed not less than 81 pounds ; at its middle, 

 where it was tolerably flat, it measured only 20 inches, 

 but at the lower joint two feet six and a half inches in 

 circumference. The tusk was three feet and a half 

 long and nearly four inches in diameter at the lower 

 end, but it was not a complete tusk ; however, in this 

 specimen I could discern no curve. The molar-tooth, 

 which I received as a gift, weighed six full pounds, and 

 its crown was armed with three high, wedge-shaped 

 apophyses.* The two other specimens were given to 

 the Library at Philadelphia, where I came upon them 

 later. As a secondary matter it deserves to be men- 



* This molar-tooth, which is at the present time in the splen- 

 did collection of natural curiosities belonging to Privy Coun- 

 sellor Schmidel at Anspach, is quite distinct from elephants' 

 teeth compared with it by the Privy Counsellor, both as to 

 weight and the entire structure The molar-tooth of an ele- 

 phant mentioned by Sparrmann weighed only four and a half 

 pounds. See his Travels, p. 563. 



