98 On the Natural Histcrij of North America, 



moth was a true elephant. It' in the form of his grinder;, 

 in the curvature of his defences or tusl<s, and n\ several 

 other circumstances, he differed considerably from the living^ 

 elephants that are now knosvn to us, those differences do no 

 more than assure us that the American animal constituted 

 a species distmct from the (living) elephants of Asia and 

 Africa. The American species is unquestionably lost; tor 

 nature, it would seem, is much less anxious to preserve the 

 whole of her created species than some illustrious naturalists 

 have supposed. The skeletons or bones of some other large 

 animals, more or less allied to the family of elephants, have 

 also been discovered in different parts of North America. 

 Among these I recognize the grinders of a species which, 

 if not the same as the elephant of Asia, must have been (as 

 • to the form of its grinders at least) more nearly allied to 

 that species than is the mammoth. The bones of another 

 large animal have been discovered. These appear to have 

 belonged to a species of tricheclius ; perhaps to the trichechus 

 rosmanis, or morse. We occasionallv find the bones of 

 some of the largest of the ceiacea in situations very remote 

 from those in which the living animals are at present to be 

 seen. The scapula of a species of whale has been found at 

 a considerable distance beneath the surface of the earth 

 within the limits of the city of Philadelphia. Several years 

 ago, the tooth of the monodon, or narwhal, was found at 

 the distance of a fewimiles from the city. These last-men- 

 tioned lacts, however, need not excite much surprise, since 

 very extensive portions of the present dry country exhibit 

 the most unequivocal proofs of an antient covering by the 

 sea. i may add, that w'ithin the memory of our history 

 whales were not uncommon in some of our bays and rivers, 

 where they are no longer seen *. 



You have, I suppose, heard of the large bones which 

 have been found, in a nitrous cave, in the back parts of 

 Virginia. Mr. Jefferson, the president of the United States, 

 has gi\en an interesting memoir on the subject of tliese 

 bones in the fourth volume of the Transactions of the Ame- 

 rican Philosophical Society. lie supposes them to have 

 belonged to a large animal of the genus felis. But these 

 remains must be referred to a very different family of ani- 

 mals ; to some one of the genera in the order tardigrada : 

 the brufa of Linnaeus. I have little doubt that they and 

 the bones fouiid near the Plata, in South America, belong 



* Since the above was written a whale [Mama musciihts) about thirty- 

 fiv£ lect in length was caught in the river Delaware, at the distaijce of sc- 

 ireraJ miles below Philadelphia. 



to 



