208 QTARTERLY JOURNAL. 



Still contain the living animal, and yet we be utterly ignorant of his 

 existence. But we will not contend for his present existence. We 

 will examine briefly the evidence of his having lived within a very 

 few centuries. 



In the first place, the testimony of the Indians, but a few years 

 back. They stated in the early part of this century, that this animal 

 still lived north of the Missouri river. They called it " Pere du 

 boeufs" (father of cattle). But how shall we reply to the question, 

 if the animal has lived in these parts of the country within so short 

 a time, why did not the early white settlers either see them or hear 

 of them from the Indians ? To this we answer, that after the dis- 

 covery of this country, the settlements of it took place very slowly, 

 and then was principally in those parts which have not apparently 

 been in the track of the mastodons. That they did not hear of them 

 from the Indians is not wonderful, for there was nothing to excite 

 enquiry with regard to them. If a bone of one had been found at 

 that period, and thus enquiry started, doubtless something would 

 have been ascertained far more distinctly than has since been 

 learned. 



That they were not antediluvian, is settled by the fact of their 

 being found in a deposit of marl and peat, all of which has been 

 formed in modern times, and which is still forming.* Moreover the 

 fact that the bones in this skeleton, from Orange county, are so i 

 fresh, containing a large portion of animal matter, and that the con- 

 tents of the stomach and intestines were found unchanged appa 

 rently by time, is strong evidence that this individual has lived at a i 

 very recent period, and we may put down five hundred years ago 

 as the most distant time at which he lived ; and we are strongly in* 

 clined to the opinion, that if extinct now, they have not been extind 

 one hundred years in the western parts of this country. 



* The rapidity with which this peaty formation is deposited, may be inferred from 

 the following fact. Forty years ago, an excavation for marl was made seven feet deep, 

 within twenty feet of the spot where these bones were found. By the operation of the 

 ordinary natural causes, that pit is now filled to nearly the level of the surrounding 

 surface. The deposit must have been much more rapid, at the time that the peat here 

 was first formed, when every year large quantities of leaves were accumulated in it, 

 besides the rank vegetation which annually grew and decayed there. 



It is a curious fact, also, that after these marl pits become filled with water, though 

 unconnected with any stream or pond of water, they in a few years become stocked 

 with eels, catfish and sunfish. ' 



