ROOM VI. 



MAMMOTHS. 



473 



juxtaposition. Many fine examples of teeth and jaws, and other parts 

 of the skeleton of the American Mastodon, from the same collection, are 

 deposited in the Cases before us. 



According to the narrative of M. Koch, these remains were found " near 

 the banks of the river La Pomme de Terre, a tributary of the Osage 

 Eiver, in Burton County in the State of Missouri, 40 lat. 18 long." 

 The bones were imbedded in a brown sandy deposit full of vegetable 

 matter, with recognisable remains of the cypress, tropical cane, and 

 swamp-moss, stems of the palmetto, &c., and this was covered by 

 beds of blue clay and gravel to a thickness of about fifteen feet. Mr. 

 Koch states (and he personally assured me of the correctness of the 

 statement) that an Indian flint arrow-head was found beneath the leg- 

 bones of this skeleton, and four similar weapons were imbedded in the 

 same stratum : he avers that he raised them out of the bed with his 

 own hands. 1 



The other North American remains of Mastodons in the Museum are 

 chiefly from Big-bone Lick, a celebrated morass or bog, in Kentucky, 

 about twenty-three miles in a south-west direction from Cincinnati. 

 Imbedded in the blue clay of this ancient Creek, the entire skeletons, 

 or separate bones, of not less than 100 Mastodons, 20 Mammoths, 

 (Elephas primigenius,) a few bones of the Megalonyx, and of a species 

 of Stag, Horse and Bison, are said to have been discovered. 2 



The following measurements (for which I am indebted to Mr. "Water- 

 house), will convey an idea of the size and proportions of this skeleton. 

 Extreme length, 20 ft. 2 in. ; height, 

 9 ft. 6f in.; cranium, length, 3 ft. ; 

 vertical dimension, 4 ft. ; width, 2 ft. 

 11 in. ; width of pelvis, 5 ft. 8 in. ; 

 tusks, extreme length, 7 ft. 2 in. ; 

 projection of the same, 5 ft. 2 in. ; 

 circumference at the base, 27 in. 



On the pedestal, and under the 

 above skeleton, is placed a model 

 of the cranium and jaws of a young 

 Mastodon, of the same species. The 

 tusks in the lower jaws are wanting. 



MAMMOTH (Elephas primigenius). 

 Wall-case A . The species of fossil 

 Elephant distributed in the Drift of 

 Europe, and whose bones, ivory tusks, 

 and even the entire carcasses covered 



with skin and bone, occur in the icy CRANIUM AND JAWS OP A YOUNG 

 regions of Siberia, is generally known MASTODON OHIOTICUS : FROM BIG- 

 by the name of Mammoth. The teeth BONE LlcK / 1 B0 ,. ^ze.) 

 and tusks of this species are so com- 

 mon in this country, that scarcely a local museum is destitute of 



1 " Description of the Missourium, by Albert Koch." Louisville, 1841, 

 p. 20. 



2 See "Travels in North America," by Sir Charles Lyell, 1845, vol. 

 ii. chap. xvii. ; or my " Pictorial Atlas of Organic Remains," p. 167. 



LION. 108. 



