Ajljort Account of the Mammoth. 163 



bones and teeth have been difcovered both in Siberia and 

 America, which at firll were generally attributed to the ele- 

 phant*, except feme very large teeth of the carnivorous kind 

 totally ditferent from thofe of any animal known. 



In Siberia they were attributed to the mammoth, whofe 

 fabulous exiftonc'e they fuppofed to be under ground, and of 

 which litrand Ides pretends to give a defcription. In North 

 America thefe large bones and carnivorous grinders have 

 been found in great abundance on the Ohio and its tributary 

 ftreams, wafhed from their banks, or difcovered by digging 

 in fait morafres in the neighbourhood of Cincinatti; where 

 they are found intermixed with the bones of buffaloes and 

 deer, which a tradition of the Indians ftates to have been de- 

 ftroyed by a herd of thefe animals which came upon them 

 from the north. This event happened, the Indians believe, as a 

 puniflnnent for their fins ; but they fay the good fpirit at length 

 interpofed to fave them, and, feating himfelf on a neighbour- 

 ing rock, where they fliow you the print of his feat and of 

 one foot, hurled his thunderbolts among them. All were 

 killed except one male, who, prefenting his forehead to the 

 fliafts, (liook them off, until, at length wounded, he fprung 

 over the Wabafh, the lllenois, and the Great Lake, where he 

 rtill lives. 



Thefe bones were forwarded with great eagernefs to all 

 parts of Europe, and depofited in mufeums, where they at- 

 tracted the curiofity of all naturalifts, whole conjeftures and 

 theories on them were very various, until Dr. Hunter, by a 

 more accurate comparifon between them and the bones of 

 other animals, doterniiued that they mull have belonged to a 

 large non-defcrijjt animal of the carnivorous kind, foinewhat 

 refeniblino- the hippopotamus and the elephant, yet effcaluUy 

 different from both. 



The fubjetl is now completely elucidated. Not long fince 

 fome farmers in the State of New YoxV, in America, digging 

 marie from their morafi'es in the neighbourhod of New- 

 Windlbr, accidentallv difcovered fcvcral of thefe bone?, which 

 jvere preferved by phvfuians in the neighbourhood. In the au- 

 lunm of i8ci, my father Charles W. Feale and myfelf, havmg 

 obtained podelhon of thefe bones, pcrlevered for nearly three 

 mouths, at the cxpcnfe of much time, labour, and money, in 

 a fearch for the remainder of the animal ; and were fuilu- 



'* Naturalifts were led to this idea in conCecjuciice of finding, in a few 

 iriftancts in America, but frequently in Siberia, fomc large graminivorous 

 teeth, whicli probably bi-lonj^ed to an animal of ilic elephant kind, ihou^tt 

 certainly of different fpccic* from any known : thric ttctli arcrcniaikable tor 

 fize, ujij ia ihe uunibcc of Uincllatcd veins of cuauicl wliith pervade them. 



L 2, n»t9 



