124 NATURAL AND ClVlL 



cies, and hou' nimierous, we cannot so miicli as 

 conjecture. When the country shall be fully- 

 explored, and Vvhen able naturalists shall have 

 visited and examined the internal parts, the his- 

 tory of the animals of America, may be brought 

 to some perfection ; but it is far from it, at 

 present. All the animals which havfe been enu- 

 merated, are only those which are frequently 

 found, in a small part of the continent. That 

 an animal of great and uncomnio*i magnitude, 

 has existed in North America, and in Siberia, is 

 ceitain from the bones of the animal wiiich } ct 

 remain. On the benks of the Ohio, and in 

 many places farther north, tusks, grinders, and 

 skeletons, of an enormous size, are to be found 

 in great numbers. Some of them lie upon the 

 surface of the ground, and others are five or six 

 feet below it. Some of the tusks are near seven 

 feet long, one foot and nine inches at the base; 

 and one foot near the point ; the cavity at the 

 base, nineteen inches deep. From the size and 

 thickness of these bones, it is certain that they 

 could not belong to the elephant ; but denote 

 an animal five or six times as large, and of the 

 carnivorous kind. We have tlie testimony of 

 the Indians that such an animal still exists in 

 the western parts of America . And it would be 

 contrarv to the whole economv of nature, to 

 suppose that any species of her animals, is be- 

 come extinct. This animal must formerly have 

 been numerous, at those places, where their 

 bones are found in such numbers. The proLa- 

 bllity is, as the means of subsistence were de- 

 stroyed, they removed further to the Westward 4 

 But until those parts of America shall be ex- 



