12 



extinct, such, as mastodon, megatherium, hipparion, 

 etc., need not necessarily be referred to extinct races 

 also ; since their remains cannot be distinguished 

 from the bones and teeth of the living species. 



Of the mollusca from the same beds about ninety- 

 five per cent are to my mind identically the same 

 with species now living on the coast of South-Caro- 

 lina. Two species of these shells though extinct, or 

 not in existence here, are now living in numbers on 

 the coast of Florida and the northern shores of the 

 gulf of Mexico ;* and two have no living represen- 

 tatives that we can discover. -j- 



The question therefore naturally suggests itself — 

 are the living horses, dogs, hogs, raccoons, opossums, 

 deer, elk, tapirs, beavers, etc., and the one hundred 

 and fifty living shells of the coast, the descendants of 

 the animals whose remains we find fossil in the above 

 named beds. 



It has been just remarked that about ninety-five 

 per cent., or nearly all of the one hundred and fifty 

 shells of molluscous animals from these beds are 

 specifically identical with the recent or living species 

 of the coast, — two are found only at the south of 

 this, and two are. extinct. Of the vertebrates from 

 the same bed, the tapir, peccary, raccoon, opossum, 

 deer, musk-rat, rabbit, beaver, and elk have still their 

 living representatives, generically, if not specifically; 

 and even of the identity of species there seems to be 

 no doubt, as no anatomical differences can be dis- 

 cerned. Two of these species, like the mollusca just 

 alluded to, no longer live in South Carolina; the 

 tapir and peccary are only found in South America 

 and Mexico; the musk-rat, elk and beaver, though 

 extinct on the Atlantic coast, are still living in the 

 interior of the country. And though it has been 

 acknowledged that the mastodon, megatherium, ele- 

 phant, glyptodon, and two species of Equine genera, 



* Strombus pugflis; Gnathodou cuneatum. 

 j Hyalea. Tellina. 



