146 Skeleton of the Mastodon. 



with the spine. These were also, from their proximity to the 

 surface, much decayed, so that the left fell to pieces on being 

 gifted from its bed. Both tibiae, each with its fibula, stood 

 nearly erect under the extremities of the femora, and under 

 them the bones of both hind-feet in their proper relative posi- 

 tion. We found no caudal vertebrae. 



The marsh had been cleared and drained about three years, 

 and during that period, as the proprietor informed us, the level 

 of its surface had lowered about two feet. To this may have, 

 perhaps, been owing the horizontal position of the thigh 

 bones, which would naturally be forced out of their originally 

 erect position by the pressure of the heavy superincumbent 

 bed of turf. The bones of the fore-legs do not, however, ap- 

 pear to have been thus acted upon. 



Cuvier states,* on the authority of General Collaud, 

 that the bones of Mastodons, formerly discovered in boggy 

 ground near the Great Osage river, were almost all in a ver- 

 tical position, as if the animals had merely sunk in the mud. 

 The same idea suggested itself to us on beholding the appear- 

 ance presented by our skeleton, after the earth was removed 

 from around it. 



The deeper we penetrated, the sounder we found thebones* 

 so that those of the foot, lying lowest, were obtained in a state 

 of perfect preservation. 



The greater part of the bones had, adhering to their sur- 

 face, and in their cavities, the phosphats of iron and lime, 

 and the sulphat of lime in very small quantities, the last in 

 minute crystals. There were also considerable masses of 

 oxyd of iron or bog ore, which, however, abounded in various 

 places in the marsh. 



Immediately underlying the stratum of black earth we came 

 to another of sand, having a ferruginous tinge, and containing 

 numerous rolled quartz pebbles. Upon this sandy stratum 



* Ossemens Fossiles. Ed, 2. torn. I. pp. 217 & 222. 



