178 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [arr. 16, 
mentary matter and vegetable growth that completely filled the 
basin and it became a wet swamp. (5) A forest growth suc- 
ceeded of great size and age. (6) This probably was, according 
to custom, cut in the winter when the surface was frozen. (7) 
The country being cleared the bog dried and gradually shrunk 
to five feet in thickness, leaving the roots of the stump exposed. 
We may estimate the age of the pine at least 300 years?* ; this 
added to the fifty years since it was cut, equals 350 years, the 
only unit of time we have, and we must, therefore, fall back on 
geological periods. 
Notre.—Mr. Daniels wrote me, December 7, 1874: ‘‘ A geolo- 
gist who has seen the specimens of the sticks you left in the 
cabinet of Dartmouth College, visited me and said he had dis- 
covered that they had been cut by two different animals—those 
cut round and round the stick were the work of beavers, and 
many cut lengthwise, with tooth marks an inch or more wide 
and sharp angles between them, were done by mastodons, and 
that the same cuttings were met where the remains of a masto- 
don were found at Cohoes Falls, N. Y., September, 1866.” 
In the ‘‘ Report of the Regents of the University of New York, 
1871,” p. 79, is “Prof. James Hall’s account of the Cohoes 
Mastodon.” He says, p. 100: “‘ Among the fragments of wood 
taken from the peaty swamp—of several species—with pine and 
hemlock cones, were many which had been gnawed by beavers, 
the marks of (their) teeth remaining distinctly visible.” There 
is nothing said of marks of mastodon teeth. We know his food 
was similar to that of the modern elephant (vegetable), but there 
is no reason to suppose he ever gnawed trees, if it were possible. 
To this end portions of the earth have been referred to Mr. 
Charles F. Cox, of the Academy, for microscopical examination, 
and he has kindly prepared the following report : 
I have made microscopical examination of the earth obtained 
by Prof. Hubbard, at Plainfield, New Hampshire, and find that 
it is to be classed with the rich diatomaceous deposits which are 
common in almost every part of the State. In 1874, Dr. Arthur 
Mead Edwards was employed by Prof. C. H. Hitchcock as mi- 
croscopist to the Geological Survey of New Hampshire, and in 
his report gave a list of fifteen localities from which specimens, 
of diatomaceous earths had been sentto him. In this list every 
one of the ten counties was represented, excepting Rockingham 
and Sullivan. Since that report was published other similar 
deposits have been made known, but, as far as I am informed, 
this specimen is the first to come from Sullivan county. 
* A pine tree (P. strobus) was cut in 1770 on Hanover, N. H., plain, 270 feet long, 
and another a few years since in Whitefield, N. H., seven feet in diameter. 
