2 20 EXTINCT MONSTERS. 



D on plan). It belonged to Elephas ganesa, one of the largest 

 of all the fossil elephants known. The total length of the 

 cranium and tusks is fourteen feet, and the tusks alone measure 

 ten feet six inches in length ! This remarkable specimen was 

 presented by Sir William Erskine Baker, K.C.B. 



But to return to our Mastodon. It was early in the eighteenth 

 century that the teeth and bones of the Mastodon were first 

 described,^ and it is curious to observe how differently scientific 

 discoveries were regarded in those days ; for this society of 

 learned men published in these Trajisadions a letter from Dr. 

 Mather to Dr. Woodward, in which the former gives an 

 account of a large work in manuscript, but does not name the 

 author. This book, which appears to have been a commentary 

 on the Bible, Dr. Mather recommends "to the patronage of 

 some generous Moecenas to promote the publication of it," and 

 transcribes, as a specimen, a passage announcing the discovery 

 at Albany, now the capital of New York State, in the year 1705, 

 of enormous bones and teeth. These relics he considered to 

 belong to a former race of giants, and appeals to them in con- 

 firmation of Genesis vi. 4 (" The Nephilim (giants) were in the 

 earth in those days "). 



Portions of the skeleton of Mastodon, discovered in 1801, were 

 sent to England and France, and two complete specimens were 

 at length put together in America. One of these was exhibited 

 as a Mammoth, in Bristol and London, by Mr. C. W. Peale, a 

 naturalist, by whom they were found in marly clay on the banks 

 of the Hudson, near Newburgh, in the State of New York. 



Previous to this, in 1739, a French officer, M. de Longueil, 

 traversed the virgin forests bordering on the river Ohio, in order 

 to reach the Mississippi, and the Indians who escorted him 

 accidentally discovered, on the borders of a marsh, various 

 bones, some of which seemed to be those of unknown animals. 

 In this turfy marsh, known as the Big Bone Lick, or Salt Lick, in 

 ' Philosophical Transactions 0/ the Royal Society, 1714, vol. xxix. 



