154 Mastodon Remains in Ohio. 



details or specific information in relation to them, yet have no reason 

 to discredit the report. In 1871, a considerable portion of a skeleton 

 was exhumed in Clark county, and the remains removed to Wittenberg 

 College, at iSpringfield. Some 3'ears ago an account was published in 

 the Dayton Jounal of the finding of a tusk, teeth, and some other por- 

 tions of a skeleton, near German town, in Montgomery county. Portions 

 of a skeleton were discovered in a swamp or bog, near New Holland, in 

 Fayette county, but have not yet been removed. The upper jaw, 

 together with a considerable portion of a cranium, were found several 

 years since in Pike county. These remains were on exhibition for several 

 years in the State Agricultural Rooms, and were owned by a Mr. Faust, 

 of Gallon or Crestline. I have recentlv been advised, that near the 

 junction of Fi-anklin and Pickaway counties with Madison, a skeleton 

 has been discovered, and am requested to name a day when I can be 

 jiresent to direct the removal of it. 



The remains found at Massillon were the only ones found within the 

 coal basin in Ohio, and even these were on the edge or margin, rather 

 than in the basin. 



All of these mastodon remains just enumerated were found imbedded 

 in swamps, morasses or bogs ; aiid it is fair to presume that as the low- 

 lands in the north-western part of the State become drained, cleared and 

 cultivated, many more skeletons, not only of this now extinct mammal, 

 l)ut many others in addition to it may reasonably be expected to be 

 found and exhumed. In digging the Ohio canal, in the vicinity of 

 Nashport, Muskingum county, the right lower jaw of Castor Ohioensis 

 (now the property of Mr. Van Vorhies, of Nashport), was found some 

 twenty-five feet from the surface, embedded in a " nuick," as Mr. Van 

 Vorhies informs me. Within the corporate limits of the city of 

 Columbus, and near the junction of the Olentangy with the Scioto river, 

 the skeletons of twelve Dieotijhs (Platygonus) co7npressns were dis- 

 covered. These last were described by me in a paper read at the last 

 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 and published in the last January number of this Journal. In ex- 

 cavating for the foundation of an exterior wall, at the Ohio Penitentiary, 

 the warden (Mr. Burr), found the fossil jaw of a horse, with the molars 

 in good condition. If the teeth and jaw held the same relative pro- 

 portion to the body as do those of the existing horse, then the fossil 

 horse must have been fully one third larger than the ordinary horse of 

 to-day. The foregoing is a complete enumeration of all the fossil post 

 glacial mammalia which, to the best of my knowledge, have been foinid 

 within the limits of this State. There is no doubt that Ohio is rich in 

 the remains of post glacial fauna, which properly organized and directed 



