142 ARCHEOLOGY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



impression, be received as conclusive evidence of the presence of mankind in what 

 are called the geological periods. The petrified condition of remains whose place 

 in the rocky tablet of the earth's chronology is not beyond the reach of question, 

 is, however, often to be explained by the rapid growth, under certain circumstances, 

 of calcareous, silicious, and other mineral formations ; while the great and sudden 

 changes of level, produced by terrestrial convulsions and elemental influences, 

 afford a solution of the mystery of many deep deposits beneath the soil. 



The association of human bones with those of extinct species of animals, ob- 

 served by Dr. Lund in the caves of Brazil, has been attributed to accidental causes. 

 A comparatively modern date has also been assigned for the disappearance of many 

 species of animals that have ceased to exist. The remains of the megatherium 

 and the mastodon are found near the surface of the earth, in the United States, 

 and do not exhibit signs of having been rolled by floods, or seriously disturbed by 

 commotions. From the stomach of a mastodon, disinterred, at no great depth, 

 from the mud of a small pond in Warren County, New Jersey, were taken seven 

 bushels of the vegetable substances on which it fed, resembling the young shoots 

 of the white cedar, still a common tree in our forests. The bones of the nearly 

 complete specimen from Newburg, New York, purchased by the late Dr. John C. 

 Warren, contain a considerable portion of their original gelatine, and are firm in 

 texture. A megatherium, exhumed while digging the Brunswick Canal, was so 

 near the surface that the roots of a pine tree penetrated its bones. Sir Charles 

 Lyell has shown that the fresh-water and land shells, lying, in some cases, beneath 

 such remains, are of the species now living in the same region ; so that their climate 

 could scarcely have differed very materially from that now prevailing in the same 

 latitudes. In another passage, speaking of extinct quadrupeds, he says : " That 

 they were exterminated by the arrows of the Indian hunter, is the first idea pre- 

 sented to the mind of almost every naturalist." 1 



An account is given of a mastodon found in Gasconade County, Missouri, 

 which had apparently been stoned to death by the Indians, and then partially 

 consumed by fire. The pieces of rock, weighing from two to twenty-five pounds 

 each, which must have been brought from the distance of four or five hundred 

 yards, "were," says the narrator, "evidently thrown with the intention of 

 hitting some object." Intermixed with burned wood, and burned bones, were 

 broken spears, axes, knives, &c, of stone. " The fire appeared to have been 

 largest on the head and neck of the animal, as the ashes and coals were 

 much deeper there than on the rest of the body." " It appeared, by the 

 situation of the skeleton, that the animal had sunk with its hind feet in the 

 mud and water, and, being unable to extricate itself, had fallen on its right side, 

 and in that situation was found and killed, as above described ; consequently, the 

 hind and fore-feet, on the right side, were sunk deeper in the mud, and thereby 

 saved from the effects of the fire." " Between the rocks that had sunk through 

 the ashes were found large pieces of skin, that appeared like fresh tanned sole- 

 leather strongly impregnated with the lye of the ashes, and a great many of the 



A Second Visit to the United States," II. pp. 2T0, 211 ; I. pp. 234, 258-9. 



