38 



I also concluded, that the flat-surfaced 

 grinders, the defenses^ or tusks, belonged to 

 one and the same animal, of the herbivorous 

 order ; and that the teeth, studded with high 

 double-coned processes, would be found to be- 

 long to a carnivorous animal, armed vvith claws: 

 in fiict the nature of his pursuits would require 

 them: of a form too unwieldly to range thro' 

 the woods, he would have to lie in wait, and 

 spring unexpectedly upon his prey. To effect 

 this act, claws are necessary, and I believe it is 

 a law of nature, that all carnivorous animals 

 should possess them. Whereas tusks, defenses^ 

 or horns, would be incompatible with the pur- 

 suits of such a creature; would retard his pro- 

 gress through the woods, and gather too much 

 wind when coursing his prey in the plains. 



These opinions were considerably confirm- 

 ed : the American philosophical society re- 

 ceived a collection of bones here treated of, 

 and among them, the os calois, or heel bones, 

 of a clawed animal. This testimony, so flat- 

 tering, so precious, and so ample to me, served 

 as a subject of meie contention to others : a 

 war ensued. Anatomists entered the lists; 

 philosophers multiplied ; and yet the question 



