Ill 



February 7, 1849. 

 The President in the Chair. 



Present, twenty-nine members. Mr. J. W. Foster, of 

 Ohio, present by invitation. 



The President exhibited to the Society the various speci- 

 mens of teeth of the Asiatic and Indian Elephants, and 

 Elephas primigenius, belonging to its collection, and dem- 

 onstrated the distinctive structure of each. He recurred to 

 the opinion expressed by him at a former meeting, of the 

 probable identity of the South American mastodon with the 

 M. angustidens, although this is at variance with the facts 

 usually observed in the geographical distribution of animals, 

 and stated that this opinion was sanctioned by the warrant 

 of Cuvier, Owen, and Darwin. 



The question of the geological position of the Mastodon 

 giganteus was, he said, one of great importance. Dr. R. W. 

 Gibbes of Columbia, S. C, who had made it a subject of some 

 study, had been inclined at first to refer the remains of this 

 species found near Charleston, S. C, to the miocene ; but more 

 recently had referred them to the pleiocene^ guided by the char- 

 acter of the shells found with them. In reply to a question from 

 Prof. Rogers, the President stated that the remains of two mas- 

 todons had been found in the north-east section of this country. 

 One of them was obtained in Connecticut, about midway between 

 the Connecticut river and the Hudson, casts of the bones of which 

 may be seen in the Collection at New Haven. 



Mr. Foster spoke of the position of the mastodon remains in Ohio, 

 The general contour of the eastern part of that State, he said, 

 was rounded and undulating, the highest ground being about 

 six hundred and fifty feet above Lake Erie. Towards the west 

 it assumes the character of a nearly uniform, level plain, which 

 he considered as a subaqueous or lacustrine deposit. It consists 

 of layers of regularly stratified clay of a very fine character. 



