A GIGANTIC RELIC, 97 



In the year 1845 there was found, at Xewburg, on the Hudson, the 

 largest perfect skeleton of a mastodon which has yet been exhumed 

 on this continent. The summer had been exceedingly hot and dry. 

 Many small lacustrine deposits had been exposed by the drought, and 

 the farmers had industriously seized upon the opportunity to remove 

 these rich beds of fertility to their tillage-lands and fields. 



The drought at last laid bare one of these deposits in a bog on the 

 farm of Mr. X. Brewster, a spot that had never been known to become 

 dry before. Mr. Brewster at once summoned his men to remove the 

 deposit, as rapidly as possible, to his fields and farm-yards. One day, 

 toward evening, in the latter part of summer, these laborers struck a 

 hard substance. Some said it was " a rock ; " others, a " log ; " others, 

 jestingly, " a mammoth." 



Early the next morning, Mr. Brewster went with his laborers to the 

 field, and found the supposed rock or log to be an immense bone. The 

 men began digging, full of eager curiosity, and exposed to view the 

 massive skull and long white tusks of a mastodon. These tusks were 

 of such immense size and length as to cause the most wonderful re- 

 ports to go flying about the neighborhood, and to draw the good peo- 

 ple of Newburg in crowds to the place. It was soon discovered that 

 the perfect skeleton of a mastodon was embedded in the peat. Sheer- 

 poles and tackles were obtained, and, amid excitement, cheering, and 

 many cautions, the bones of the monster were raised from the bed 

 where they had lain no one can tell how many thousand years. 



Two days were occupied in these interesting labors. The relics 

 drew to them an immense number of people from the surrounding 

 country. Beneath the pelvic bones of this mastodon were found five 

 or six bushels of broken twigs, which evidently had constituted the 

 animal's last meal. He had undoubtedly been mired while attempting 

 to cross this bog, and in this manner perished. These twigs were from 

 one-quarter to three-eighths of an inch in diameter, and a little more 

 than an inch in length. They were supposed to belong to the willow, 

 linden, and maple trees. 



It is impossible to conjecture how many years ago this creature 

 may have lived. What marvelous scenes must have passed before its 

 eyes in its wanderings ! What gigantic forests ; what noble water- 

 courses ; what luxurious vegetation ; what strange animals may have 

 been its companions — species that passed away long before civilization 

 brought its destructive weapons to the Western shores ! Was man, 

 too, its contemporary ; if so, how humiliating to intellectual pride is 

 the oblivion that consigns to conjecture and mystery so large a por^ 

 tion of the human race ! 



VOL. T. — 7 



