32 On Elephantine Hones. 



vered them in a much smaller number of places. It 

 must not be concealed, however, that Mr. Peak's two 

 skeletons were found in the latter tract of country ; and 

 some of the bones of a Mammoth have been discovered 

 in the state of New- Jersey, at the distance of a few miles 

 from Philadelphia. 



It is, perhaps, worth observing, in this place, that the 

 different kinds of licks, especially the muriatic marshes, 

 and transparent springs of water impregnated with mu- 

 riate of soda, are much more commonly met with in the 

 western than in the eastern parts of North- America. I 

 do not mention this as a decided confirmation of my po- 

 sition, that the Mammoth was more common in the 

 trans-alpine, than in the Atlantic, or submaritime, parts 

 of the continent : for it is, certainly, possible, that we 

 may have discovered more of this elephant's exuviae in 

 the western than in the eastern countries chiefly because 

 they were more likely to be preserved (owing to the 

 greater number of marshes) in the former than in the lat- 

 ter countries. But I cannot help suspecting, that the 

 Mammoth, like the bison, the elk, and the other animals 

 formerly enumerated, resorted to the licks, for the pur- 

 pose of drinking the saline water, and of eating the 

 earth impregnated with it. 



If future and more extensive researches should more 

 clearly establish my position, relative to the diffusion of 

 the Mammoth across the continent of North- America, 

 it will be somewhat remarkable, that the bones of this 

 animal have so seldom been seen in the eastern parts of 



