38 



the southwest by south, flowiug into the Ohio two miles 

 south of the swamp. 



The pecuHarity of the horizou was so perplexing that 

 Dr. Edward Ortou was requested to visit the diggings and 

 assist in reaching some decision. 



This decision hinged entirely upon the relation of the 

 blue clay to the remains. If all or even a good portion of 

 the clay had been above the bones, they naturally would 

 have been termed inter- or even preglacial. But as it is, it 

 is a much more difficult problem. The bones reached to the 

 bottom of, and, at least once, below the bowlder-claj'; while 

 the latter did not entirely cover them, for a few small frag- 

 ments were found in the yellow clay, and, in one instance, 

 a tusk, which at its base rested at the bottom of the blue 

 clay, pierced the latter and penetrated the overlying clay for 

 a .short distance with its tip. 



It seems as if the hard pan was either deposited after 

 or during the heaping up of the bones from the neighboring 

 swamp. The evidence being somew^hat questionable and 

 contrary to all former discoveries of mastodon and mammoth 

 remains in Ohio, Dr. Orton has thought best to place it 

 among the post-glacial finds. 



Heretofore, such mastodon bones as have been found in 

 Hamilton County have been mere fragments or, at best, only 

 an odd bone or two, always accompanied by, and usually rest- 

 ing upon, washed gravel. But, in this in.stance, we have a 

 quantity of bones, from at least three mastodons. So that, 

 locally, this find, from quantity alone, is a justly notable 

 one. The fact of more than one animal being represented 

 is of more than passing significance. Although there is no 

 reason to suppose that these animals were mired, or that they 

 floated to their last resting place entire — since the bones were 

 .so scattered and out of their relative positions — yet, they 

 must have perished in the immediate vicinit3'^probably in 

 the neighboring swamp — and during different fre.shets were 

 carried inta an eddy along the bank and depo.sited from time 

 to time where they were unearthed. 



