292 Correction of Col. Wailes^s Communication. [May, 



skull," belonging to an animal that walked upright! I am 

 entirely guiltless; and I presume it was from no other source 

 than the author of the paper previously referred to, which 

 speaks of stalactites associated with the bones of the mas- 

 todon in Natchez bluffs. Now you and I know that no masto- 

 dons were ever found in this locality, but in the mastodon ravine 

 where the human bones were found, land-slides are of common 

 occurrence, and it is in these that the bones are often laid bare, 

 and nothing is more natural than that the human bones from the 

 graves of the early settlers (and such are frequently met with,) 

 should from the same causes find their w^ay into the ravines, and 

 intermix with the bones of the extinct animals. How prepos- 

 terous to assign the two to the same geological epoch, because they 

 happen to be found in proximity. Now Dr. Emmons's attention 

 has been called to this subject, but so far as I have yet learned, 

 nothing to extenuate or explain has been done by him. You can- 

 not therefore be surprised that I should feel reluctant to expose 

 myself to similar misrepresentations." 



Such, my dear sir, are the facts in the case, which I think 

 must show, if evidence w^ere necessary, that the gentleman has 

 been misrepresented; and although he states that your attention 

 has been called to the facts, without noticing it, I could think but 

 that he might be mistaken, and on that account I have taken the 

 liberty to write you, hoping and trusting that if his impressions 

 are well grounded, that they may be removed without delay. 

 The new and surprising fact, if such it prove to be, that human 

 bones are found in place with extinct genera, as was announced 

 and contended for by Dr. Dickenson, requires confirmation, and I 

 know of no man so favorably situated, and none under the cir- 

 cumstances so capable of deciding the question as Col. Wailes, 

 who has lived for the last twenty years in the immediate vicinity 

 of the locality which has furnished most of the specimens above 

 alluded to. At the meeting in 1845, I believe Dr. D. announced 

 the fragment of a hitman skull with the " nondescript," (Mylodon 

 of Owen.) In 1846 the same gentleman announced the iliac 

 bone under similar circumstances. Col. W.'s opinion on this sub- 

 ject I have already given. But at my earnest request I hope he 

 will be induced to investigate the subject somewhat further. I 

 intend to attend the next meeting of the association, when I hope 

 to see the question set at rest. Yours truly, 



L. D. GALE. 



