THE MASTODON 211 
graphs of various skeletons of mastodons, Mr. 
Gleeson made the restoration which accom- 
panies this chapter. 
As for the size of the mastodon, this, like 
that of the mammoth, is popularly much over- 
estimated, and it is more than doubtful if any 
attained the height of a full-grown African 
elephant. The largest femur, or thigh-bone, 
_ that has come under the writer’s notice was 
one he measured ‘as it lay in the earth at 
Kimmswick, and this was just four feet long, 
three inches shorter than the thigh-bone of 
Jumbo. Several of the largest thigh-bones 
measured show so striking an unanimity in 
size, between 46 and 47 inches in length, that 
we may be pretty sure they represent the aver- 
age old “bull” mastodon, and if we say that | 
these animals stood ten feet high we are 
probably doing them full justice. An occa- 
sional tusk reaches a length of ten feet, but 
seven or eight is the usual size, with a diameter 
of as many inches, and this is no larger than 
the tusks of the African elephant would grow 
if they had a chance. It is painful to be 
obliged to scale down the mastodon as we have 
