EXTRANEOUS FOSSILS. 515 



his hand. This account is given as coming from the 

 mouth of the man himfelf, and who was one of thirtv 

 others, all eye witnefles to the fad. Strahlenberg then 

 obferves, that a Dodor MeHerfchmidt had feen the bones 

 of a whole fkeleton of a monftrous fize, lying in a 

 heap in a ditch between Tomlkoi and Kafnctflvo, on the 

 banks of the river Tomber. He next tells us what he 

 himfelf had feen. He faw, at the city of Tumeen, a 

 fkull of the Mammoth, two ells and a half in length : 

 but this the Ruffians informed him was one of the fmalleft 

 fize. He had alfo feen Mammoth tulks, each upwards 

 of four Ruffian ells in length, and nine inches in diameter 

 at the thick end. 



It is to be regretted, that the world has not yet been 

 favoured with a particular and fcientific defcription of 

 the whole fkeleton of an i?icognitum fo interefting as the 

 Mammoth. Both MuUer and Ilbrandes Ides, indeed, 

 have gone fo far, as to defcribe his ftrudlure, fize, colour, 

 &c. But what credit can be given to fuch idle ftories, 

 when Ides himfelf confefles, that he knew of no perfon 

 who had ever feen a living Mammoth? The perfon who 

 (hall firft procure the complete fkeleton of this incognitum, 

 will render, — not to his countiy alone, but to the world, 

 — a moft invaluable prefent.* 



In my mind it is highly probable, that both fpecies of 

 incognita in queflion, have long fmce perifhed. This opini- 

 on derives countenance from feveral difcoveries of other 

 foffil bones, in Germany, in South-America, and in 

 Virginia. "We are now acquainted with the fkeletons of 

 five feveral large animals, all of whom are, at prefent, 

 3X2 unknown : 



* I have often exprefled a belief, that whenever the entire fkeleton fliould 

 he found, it would appear to have been armed with claws. I am now more 

 confirmed in the opinion; for after this Memoir was written, tlie Society re- 

 ceived a coUeftion of the bones here treated of, and among them the os 

 calcis, or heel bone, of a clwjied animal. 



