Discovery of the Fossil Remains of the Mastodon. 248 
and in excellent preservation. Many of them had small 
quantities of the phosphats of iron, and of lime, and small 
crystals of sulphate of lime, adhering to them 
ts position, corresponding with that of the’ skeleton found 
on the Wabash, was vertical, the feet resting on a stra 
sand and gravel, (mostly rolted quartz,) and the head te the 
west-south-west. There is every reason for supposing that 
the animal was mired in that situation, but at what period, 
we have no data even to conjecture. But we have authority 
for believing that the mastodon was one of the last animals 
that has become extinct. Zoologists, particularly zoological 
geologists, consider the doctrine as established, that the suc- 
cessive generations of organized beings thathave dwelt upon 
os exterior of our globe, differ from the present generations, 
h proportion as their remains are more or less distant from 
she present surface ; a in other words, as the time in which 
they existed is remote from the present day. ow, accord- 
e 
of the living generations, (which we know to be the case,) 
and the deduction is fair, that - = living animal be not 
found, of which there seems no little probability, its 
race has not long since perished,” comparatively speaking. 
This conclusion is confirmed in my own mind by our re- 
searches after these very interesting remains. 
Immediately under the surface, we found bog-iron-ore, 
loosely disseminated; in other places in the field it existed in 
abundance. A soft, black, damp earth, containing vegeta- 
ble fibres, (what the Germans call geest,) continued down — 
four feet from the surface. Beneath this we found a yellow- 
ing sand, on which vested the feet of ihe animal, font eight 
and a half feet below the surface. These layers resemble 
those occurring frequently in Europe, and compose the great- 
er part of our sea coast, from Long-Island to the Mississippi. 
hey form part of the newer or tertiary formations, and are 
evidences of the last geological changes that the surface of 
our'globe has experienced, always excepting volcanic and al- 
—— 2 still in daily operation. 
Of the genus mastodon, there are two distinct species, 
viz. the M. giganteum and the M. 4 ~iget nase ee 
as ad names mag 4 by the ~— and y the configuration 
OL. XI,—No. 
