.ai 



THE LOST RACES. 201 



this mollusk increases in numbers with every additional ascending 

 deposit, and, before the middle of the series is reached, has spread 

 so widely, and so countlessly multiplied itself that it nearly fills the 

 mass of the rock. From this point upwards, however, no increase, 

 but a diminution in the numbers of this same mollusk occurs with 

 each succeeding deposit, till a few solitary individuals only remain. 

 The relation here stated holds true for both the vertical and the 

 horizontal plane, in all the "xtent of the system of the New- York 

 deposits : go east or west, we find always the same order of in- 

 crease, decrease, and final extinction of the species. 



We have expended many words in attempting to convey a single 



idea, to exhibit a single fact, which, after all, may be condensed in 



the three words that ser^-e to define a well-known character employed 



in musical notation : crescendo et diminuendo -=^1:::=^. With this 



« harmonical symbol before us, our whole idea is comprised in a dia- 



M' gram ; the complete progress and final close of the march led by 



each earthborn race is expressed in a formula. 



We have been led into the foregoing train of thought, by the dis- 



"k covery of the remains of a species of deer in the freshwater marl 



fs Deds of Orange and Greene counties in this Stale. We first obtained 



i i the jaw of this extinct species from the marl pit of Mr. Stewart in 



ihe latter county, and afterwards one of the horns from a similar pit 



w n Scotchlovi^n in O'-ange. This deer was about the size of the rein- 



'M ieer of the north, and, like that animal, was provided with a flat- 



iiB tened (though more slender) horn ; but it diflfers specifically from 



Iro Lhe reindeer, in the possession of two brow antlers instead of one, 



t!> Ml a single shaft, and ^^ .ite near its base. No other bones have yet 



;iM jeen found, and hence the height and bulk of the animal have not 



jeen accurately determined ; but that in this country the genus 



Cervus contained a species which is now extinct, is, by this dis- 



i I x)very, placed beyond a doubt. 



But a still more remarkable species has also perished : we allude 



«gi ;o.the great Irish elk, whose remains are found in the same beds as 



an iiose of the deer just spoken of. The horns of this gigantic creature 



ad a spread of ten feet, a.id hence he must have been one of the 



'eni BCst majestic animals of the forests of his time. 



Of all the species of extinct quadrupeds, however, the mastodons 

 ind elephants are the most remarkable. An animal twelve feet high 

 otiii ind proportionately long, provided with tusks curving upwards and 



