DILUTIUM. DRIFT AND ERRATIC BLOCKS. 755 



The latter is the Mastodon maximus of Cuvier, a colossal creature, armed with gigantic 

 tusks. Parts of the skeleton found at Albany, on the Hudson river, were described by 

 Dr. Mather in the year 1712, who deemed them the bones of giants, and regarded the 

 discovery as confirming the sacred record, " There were giants in the earth in those 

 days." Afterwards similar remains were found abundantly along the course of the 

 Ohio ; and the " animal of the Ohio " became the name of the unknown creature, till 

 Cuvier originated its scientific denomination. Myriads of its bones occur along the 

 river of the Osages, and indeed are commonly met with all over North America 

 between the parallels of 33 and 43 north latitude, or in the country between Charles- 

 town and Lake Erie, from near the coast of the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains. 

 Within these limits the principal locality is the Big Bone Lick in Kentucky, one of 

 those marshy valleys containing brackish water, locally termed " licks," on account of 

 the deer and other animals resorting to them. Here a vast number of bones of various 

 extinct animals, accompanied with remains of plants, have been found imbedded in dark- 

 coloured mud and gravel, the broken appearance of which seems to indicate a long drift 

 and the violent action of water. It has been estimated that the bones of one hundred 

 mastodons, two hundred elephants, twenty buffaloes, two oxen, and two deer, have been 

 carried from this marsh. The native Indians have long been acquainted with the 

 gigantic quadrupeds entombed in their territory. According to an old tradition, they 

 occupied it till, attacking the deer and buffalo created for their own use, the " Mighty 

 One above " seized his thunder and killed them all, with the solitary exception of one of 

 the largest males. He shook off the thunderbolts as they fell upon his massive head ; but, 

 being wounded in the side, fled at length to the great lakes, where he has continued to 

 the present period. Mr. Darwin mentions a similar idea current among the native inha 

 bitants of South America respecting the mastodon, to that which the northern Asiatics 

 entertain of the mammoth. Sailing down the river Parana, he found two immense skele 

 tons near each other, projecting in bold relief from a perpendicular cliff, and was told by 

 the men in the canoe that they had often observed them, had wondered how they got 

 there, and conceived, as the most probable theory, that they were the remains of huge 

 burrowing animals. The great mastodon probably haunted marshy places, feeding upon 

 the roots of the vegetables common to such sites. It was probably lower in stature than 

 the Indian elephant, but more elongated. The largest and most perfect specimen, hitherto 

 discovered, was exhumed in the town of Newburg, New York, the length of the skeleton 

 being 25 feet, and its height 12 feet, while the tusks were 10 feet long. 



Rhinoceros. The range of this animal is now comparatively limited and exclusively 

 tropical, being chiefly located in Southern Africa, the Asiatic islands, and India beyond 

 the Ganges, the one-horned rhinoceros occupying the two latter districts, and the two- 

 horned the former. The remains of five extinct species are noticed by Cuvier, three of 

 large size, and all two-horned ; but altogether ten species are enumerated. They are 

 very widely spread, and occur abundantly in the cold regions of the globe, towards the 

 severe latitudes of the polar circle, as well as in all the temperate parts of Europe. In 

 short, wherever the bones of the fossil elephant are found, they are generally in con 

 nection with those of the now associate animal, the rhinoceros. Germany has furnished 

 them in great profusion ; and Italy likewise in immense quantities, but of a different 

 species ; while the clay and gravel beds of our own country have been scarcely less pro 

 lific. Their first discovery with us was in 1668, upon digging a well at a village near 

 Canterbury. As in the case of the mammoth, we have an instance of an entire rhino 

 ceros found buried in the sand on the banks of one of the tributaries of the Lena, in 64 

 north latitude, the head and feet of which are now preserved at Petersburg. The dis 

 covery was made in December 1771, and is described by Pallas. The animal was 



