four feet deep. Beneath these is a stratum of coarse vegetable stems and films, 

 resembling chopped straw or drift stuff, along the sea-shore, about a foot and a half 

 thick; and under this is a stratum of fine bluish and soft clay. Specimens of these 

 are brought away, and are herewith presented. The bones raised were parts of a 

 lower jaw with its teeth, of a scapula, of a humerus, of an ulna and radius, of the 

 bones of the feet, of ribs, and of vertebrae. The upper maxillary bone was found, 

 with its grinders and tusks, in their natural situation. Dr. Townsend and Dr. 

 Seely, who had from the beginning aided with their own hands the acquisition of these 

 curious remains, now laboured with the greatest assiduity in the pit to uncover com- 

 pletely, and elevate connectedly, these important parts of the animal. The unparal- 

 leled association of bones, teeth, and ivory prongs, were, after much exertion, de- 

 nuded of their mud and developed to view. They lay upside down, or, in other 

 words, their natural position was inverted, as if the creature had died in a supine 

 posture. The palate bones were perfectly in sight, with the huge molares on each 

 side. From the point forward where the palate joins the upper maxillary bone in 

 other animals, two ivory tusks proceeded. These were not inserted in sockets; 

 at least no such holes or sockets could be found ; but they seemed to be formed by a 

 gradual change of bone to ivory, or of osseous to eburneous matter. In this lespect 

 the conversion resembled the jaw and tooth of the Saurian reptile of Nevesink, al- 

 ready in the cabinet of the Professor of Natural History ; in w^hich organization the 

 jaw is converted gradually to tooth. Their direction was forward, with a bold curva- 

 ture outward and upward. Between the tusks could be seen and felt the nasal proc- 

 esses to which the proboscis had formerly been attached. They were short and 

 ungular. On attempting to loosen the left tusk from its clayey bed, it broke across, 

 though touched in the most delicate manner. Though approached with the gentlest 

 touch, it flaked off in considerable portions, and cracked through in several other 

 places. Finding it wholly impossible to preserve its entirety, recourse was had to 

 measuring the relics as they lay, and of making drawings from them as accurately as 

 possible. And as the fragments of the tusk were handed up. Dr. Mitchill measured 

 them by a rule, and found their amount, reckoning within bounds, to be eight feet 

 and nine inches; or taking into calculation the space of connexion with the jaw as 

 being three inches, or perhaps more, the length of the tusk was nine feet, or upwards, 

 of solid ivory* 



The circumference at the base was two feet and two inches, making a diameter 

 of eight inches and two- thirds! The taper was easy, gradual, and smooth, like the 

 tusks of other elephants. Dr. Townsend made a sketch of the parts in situ, before 

 they were removed; by which it will be seen how the grinders are situated in relation 

 to the tusks, and how tusks are to be considered as holding a middle place, in their 

 anatomical structure and use, between teeth and horns. The various parts of the 

 animal which were disinterred, and the drawings and illustrations, are herewith 

 submitted to the society. 



" Although the fragile and friable nature of these bones might render it impossible 

 ever to connect them into a complete skeleton, the commissioners state it as a matter 

 of the highest probability, that at the aforesaid place, the remainder of a mammoth, 

 as huge perhaps as ever walked the earth, reposes in the swamp, not more than 

 fifty-four miles from the site of this institution. — He has already heard the resusci- 

 tating voice of the Lyceum." 



* The tusks, though solid, are changed in their nature. Professor MacNeven, honorary 

 member of the Lyceum, mentioned, in the society, that he had found their substance to be 

 converted into carbonate of hme. 



vl 



