18 THE MASTODON. 



mal as the fossil elephant of Siberia, and for a long time 

 it was called the mammoth. It also received the name 

 of " The Great American Incognitum." Its present name 

 ■was given to it by Cuvier, who designated it by the form 

 of the tooth — the word mastodon being derived from the 

 two Greek words, mastos, nipple^ and oclous, tooth, or nij^ple- 

 tooth. Dr. William Hunter, having been misled by a par- 

 tial view of the organization of the teeth and their appar- 

 ent similarity to the teeth of the carnivora, was of opinion 

 that the points of these massive organs were destined to 

 crush the bones of smaller animals, hence he called it the 

 ^* Carnivorous Elephant." The mastodon of Xorth Amer- 

 ica having been the first to receive attention, to it Cuvier 

 added the specific term Giganteus^ or " Gigantic Mastodon." 

 The remains were found bordering on the Ohio, and on 

 this account BufFon called it the Mastodon Ohioticus. In 

 1793 Pennant designated it by the name of Ekplias Ameri- 

 canus, or American Elephant; Blumenbach, in 1797, named 

 it 3Iammut Ohioticum, or the Mammoth of Ohio ; Adrian 

 Camper proposed naming it Elephas Macrocephalus^ or Long- 

 headed Elephant. As the epithet Ohiotlcum was used be- 

 fore Giganteus, Dr. Falconer favored the former term. It 

 has also been called Mastodon Magnum^ or Great Mastodon. 

 It seems that the name Mastodon Giganteus should be 

 given to the principal American species, for, of all the 

 difierent varieties, it is the largest, and this name very 

 appropriately designates it. 



IV. RANGE. 



No extinct quadruped has been more widely diffused 

 over the globe than the mastodon. It has extended from 

 the tropics both south and north into temperate latitudes, 

 and its bones have been found in vast numbers throughout 

 the plains of North America, from north of Lake Erie to 

 the Gulf on the south. There were mastodons peculiar to 



