bce ? 
ee 
THE MASTODON 213 
the swamps retain much of their animal mat- 
ter. So recent, comparatively speaking, has 
been the disappearance of the mastodon, and 
so fresh-looking are some of its bones, that 
Thomas Jefferson thought in his day that it 
might still be living in some part of the then 
unexplored Northwest. 
It is a moot question whether or not man 
and the mastodon were contemporaries in 
North America, and while many,there be who, 
like the writer of these lines, believe that this 
was the case, an expression of belief is not a 
demonstration of fact. The best that can be 
said is that there are scattered bits of testi- 
mony, slight though they are, which seem to 
point that way, but no one so strong by itself 
that it could not be shaken by sharp cross- 
questioning and enable man to prove an alibi 
in atrial by jury. For example, in the great 
bone deposit at Kimmswick, Mo., Mr. Beehler 
found a flint arrowhead, but this may have lain 
just over the bone-bearing layer, or have got 
in by some accident in excavating. How easily 
a mistake may be made is shown by the report 
sent to the United States National Museum of 
