210 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 



an eddy beneath the bluff. Or as the place 

 abounds in springs of sulphur and salt water 

 it may be that this was where the animals 

 assembled during cold weather, just as the 

 moas are believed to have gathered in the 

 swamps of New Zealand, and here the weaker 

 died and left their bones. 



The mastodon must have looked very much 

 like any other elephant, though a little shorter 

 in the legs and somewhat more heavily built 

 than either of the living species, while the 

 head was a trifle flatter and the jaw decidedly 

 longer. The tusks are a variable quantity, 

 sometimes merely bowing outwards, often 

 curving upwards to form a half circle ; they 

 were never so long as the largest mammoth 

 tusks, but to make up for this they were a 

 shade stouter for their length. As the masto- 

 don ranged well to the north it is fair to sup- 

 pose that he may have been covered with long 

 hair, a supposition that seems to be borne out 

 by the discovery, noted by Rembrandt Peale, of 

 a mass of long, coarse, woolly hair buried in one 

 of the swamps of Ulster County, New York. 

 And with these facts in mind, aided by photo- 



