26 On Elephantine Bones. 



tain, that so late as 1762, which was, in all probability, 

 several centuries after the extinction of the species in 

 America, the proboscis (trompe) of one of the animals 

 was preserved : for the Indians, in their account of the 

 discovery, said, that the head of one of the Mammoths 

 was furnished " with a long nose, and the mouth on the 

 under side." This long nose, I have no doubt, was the 

 proboscis. Since the publication of the notice, to which 

 I have referred you, I have observed, in Kalm's Travels, 

 a circumstance which deserves to be repeated here. 

 Speaking of an enormous skeleton, supposed to be that 

 of an Elephant, which was found by the Indians in a 

 swamp, " in that part of Canada where the Illinois live," 

 the honest Swedish traveller says, that he was informed 

 by an officer, who had seen the remains, " that the figure 

 of the whole snout was still clearly visible, though it 

 was iioav half mouldered*." The snout, as it is here 

 called, seems to refer to the proboscis, or trompe. In- 

 deed, the Swedish word " snabclcn?' 1 in the original, 

 leaves us in little doubt on the subject. 



I have no reason to believe, that the skeleton, of which 

 Kalm speaks, was one of those of which mention is 

 made in my Journal. The contrary is more probable. 

 Be this as it may, it would appear, from the double tes- 

 timony which I have collected on the subject, that not 

 only the bones, but even the long nose, or proboscis, of 

 the American elephant, has been preserved, and seen, in 

 some of the marshes of the country. 



* En Resa til Nona America, Sec, af Pelu- Kalm. Tom. III. 

 p. 211. See, also, the English translation, by Dr. J. R. Forstcr. 

 Vol. HI. p. 1! and 12. London: 1771. 



