iSo T R A V EL Sf THRotJCH 



^ith : a herd of thefe animals having loft their 

 way, probably entered the new continent, and 

 having always gone oh main land and in forefts, 

 the Indians of that time not having the ufe of 

 fire arms, have not been able to <leftroy them 

 Entirely -, it is pofTible that feven arrived at th^ 

 place near the Ohio^ which, in our maps of Lout-- 

 Jiana^ is marked with a crofs. The elephants^ 

 according to all appearance, were in a fwampy 

 ground, where they funk in by the enormous 

 weight of their bodies, and could not get out 

 again, but were forced to flay there *. 



In 1752, the Baron Porneuf, who command- 

 ed Fort Frmifois in the country of the Mijfouris^ 

 received the ikin of an animal from the Indians, 

 %vhich was hitherto unknown in America. That 

 officer fent it to the Marchionefs de Vaudreuily 

 v/ho made a muff of it : t|^is creature v^as about 

 twice as big as an European fox, and its hair as 



fine 



• It appears from modern geographical obfervations, thai 

 our author's fuppofition of a migration of elephants is im- 

 probable and it is further confirmed by the examination of 

 the teeth of thefe animals, which are very different from thole 

 of the common elephant, and confequently they cannot be of 

 the fame fpecies. See Kalm's Travels, vol. I. p. 135. 

 Philofoph. Tranf. vol. LVIII. and Pennant's Synopfis of 

 Quadrupeds, p. 91. F. 



