On the Mammoth. 3^3 



ae appears from the form of the end-bones, it had nails, not 

 claws. 



The pofition given to the tufks feemed doubtful ; but, on 

 a view of the faft, it is decifive that they could not have been ' 

 placed otherwife. They are of a fpiral curvature of one 

 (juarter turn: they are fo inferted into the head as to go back 

 alongfide the (lioulders, but at fuch a diftance, as, by the 

 turn of the head with fome curvature of the body, to reach 

 the fides and huider parts, and from their conftru6lion and 

 pofition point out evidently, at lealt to me, that they were 

 weapons of defence againft fuch of its enemies as might at- 

 tack it in the flank or rear, and of deftrudtive offence alfo in 

 fuch cafe. Of this more hereafter. 



The neck is fo Ihort that the animal could not reach the 

 ground with its mouth : the line from the withers to the end 

 of the under-jaw is about one-third of the line from the wi- 

 thers to the ground. I did not take an adual meafure of 

 this, but I will venture to affert it from my habit in drawing. 



This animal, if a grazing animal, might indeed, as the 

 moofe deer do, feed on young (hoots of the woods, or the 

 bark; or, by going into moralfcs up to the breaft in water, 

 ieed on the long graifes and water-plants which grow there- 

 in : but it is decidedly a carnivorous animal. The woods of 

 the earth in which this animal could live, move, and fultain 

 its being, muft have been totally different from fuch as at 

 prefent cover the face of the earth ; otherwife his enormous 

 form, with the pofition of his tulks, muft have rendered him 

 incapable of penetrating or pafling through them. 



Now here let the ingenuity and wit of our philofophers 

 moft renowned as naturalifts fearch into the fad, and tell 

 us what fort of animals could have been his prey, and where 

 fuch could exift in fufiicient abundance to fuftain this enor- 

 mous animal ; and if any fuch ever did exift, which we now 

 know nothing of, how he could, .be his capacity for velocity 

 fuppofed to be what it may, how he could hunt them in woods 

 into which he could not penetrate, and through which he 

 could not pafs. 



The queftion then arifes and remains in doubt, Where 

 muft we look for his habitation and his food ? Not being 

 able to find either in the prefent ftate of the earth, my rc- 

 learch is led to feek it under fome other ftate of this planet. 

 In fcarchiiig for fuch ftate of things, I go to llic lirft informa- 

 tion v.e can obtain of the lAjloiy of this J'atl, in the divine 

 book of Gentfis, written under infpiration : and there 1 am 

 taught thai the original ftale of tliisi plaml, ;// the fivjl period 

 yl its cxiliencc, wub tiiai of an aqueous planet, 'i he waters, 



over 



