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From a careful investigation of its remains, Cuvier thinks 

 that we have a right to conclude that the mastodon did not 

 exceed the elephant in height, but was rather longer in pro- 

 portion ; its limbs rather thicker, and its belly smaller. It 

 appears to have had a trunk, and to have agreed with the 

 elephant in having tusks, and in the whole of its osteology, 

 excepting in its teeth, which differ so much in every respect 

 from those of the elephant, as to forbid its being placed in 

 the same genus. 



The teeth are formed of an internal bony substance, with 

 a thick cap of enamel. The crown is oblong, nearly rectan- 

 gular, and divided by widely-spreading grooves intersected 

 by another in a longitudinal direction, into two rows of large 

 pyramidal points, over which the enamel is thickly disposed. 

 The roots of the teeth are inserted into distinct and sepa- 

 rate cavities in the mass of bone forming the jaws. 



From the points and depressions of the teeth fitting into 

 each other like the teeth of two saws, they must have been, 

 Mr. Peale observes, incapable of lateral motion, and, conse- 

 quently, of trituration ; he therefore inferred, that it must 

 have been a carnivorous animal : but, in the opinion of 

 Cuvier, its food must have been similar to that of the hip- 

 popotamus and boar; preferring, perhaps, the roots and 

 fleshy parts of vegetables. 



According to Mr. Peale, there are but six vertebrae of 

 the neck ; nineteen dorsal vertebras, and as many ribs, were 

 found, and one was supposed to be lost ; three vertebrae re- 

 mained, belonging to the loins. 



The vertebrae agree, in general, with those of the ele- 

 phant ; but the ribs differ, in being thin towards the cartilage, 

 and thick and strong towards the back. The scapula ap- 

 pears to possess the characters of the scapula of the elephant. 

 The larger bones of the fore extremity are much thicker 

 than those of the hind extremity. The enormous mass of 

 the os femoris, and particularly its width, exceeds that of 



