ON THE FOSSIL BONES, &C. 57 



about five feet deep, an extraordinary tooth standing upright, 

 being part above and part under ground. The groat size of 

 this, and a remnant of ivory which was found with it, indu- 

 ced the belief, that it had belonged to an Elephant. It was 

 already much decayed, and has disappeared from his yard, 

 after having been tossed about it, during three or four years. 

 The place was again thoroughly examined by directions of 

 M. Duraldc, but without making any further discovery. 



Mr. John Teston, a man of integrity, declared that about 

 15 years ago he found the remains of an enormous jaw-bone 

 in a brook on his plantation, weighing as he judged '25lb. He 

 took it up, and shewed it to several persons, all of them un- 

 fortunately of little knowledge or experience in these subjects; 

 but, from a faint recollection of what had been discovered at 

 Carancro, they supposed that it must have belonged to an Ele- 

 phant. He pointed out to M. Duralde the place from whence 

 it was taken, but there only remained some small pieces of 

 bone much scattered, none exceeding an inch in diameter, 

 and totally insufficient. to lead the most intelligent observer to 

 any important conclusion. These two brooks are separated from 

 each other from 750 to 900 Toises, and distant from Carancro 

 about four or five leagues. 



M. Duralde accompanies the above facts by the following 

 observations. 



These bones, which were supposed to be those of the Ele- 

 phant, have been discovered, on the borders of brooks passing 

 through Prairies, in a clay soil at the depth of a few feet; 

 except those at Carancro, which were found heaped up on a 

 small point of sand, at the mouth of another brook of the 

 same kind as those mentioned, and which may have been 

 deposited there by the floods. 



The inhabitants of this country think that the surface there- 

 of has risen visibly; because these marshes which were im- 

 passable to man and beast when they settled there, will at pre- 

 sent allow a free passage over them even on horseback at the 

 end of summer and beginning ot autumn. This fact is 

 really so, and I believe there are two causes of the diminu- 

 tion of water; the one is the evaporation occasioned by the 

 sun, the other the travelling of the cattle ; they wear the 



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