304 Forty-third Report on the Sitate Museum. 



EEPOKT ON THE BONES OF MASTODON OR ELEPHAS 

 FOUND ASSOCIATED WITH CHARCOAL AND POT- 

 TERY AT ATTICA, WYOMING COUNTY, N. Y. 



James Hall, LL. D., State Geologist: 



Sir. — Late in the autumn of 1886 my attention uas called to the 

 discovery of some mastodon bones in the village of Attica, Wyoming 

 county, N. Y., and shortly thereafter, under your direction, I visited 

 the place for the purpose of determining if the discovery merited the 

 attention of the State Museum. The visit elicted the fact that some 

 workmen, while engaged during the month of September or October 

 of that year in digging a trench for a water-main alongside the road- 

 bed of Genesee street in that village, partly uncovered a tusk, at a 

 depth of about three feet from the surface. The tip of the tusk was 

 left projecling for about six inches into the trench, and being regai ded 

 by the workmen as a hemlock root, no especial attention was paid to 

 it until it was hacked in two with a pickax, in order to get the 

 obstruction out of the way of the water-pipes. It nature was there- 

 upon recognized by some of the lookers-on. The tusk was removed, 

 and the excavation widened over an area of about twenty-five square 

 feet, in a search for other bones of the skeleton. This search 

 resulted in finding two ribs and a portion of the zygomatic arch, 

 which lay four or five feet away from the position of the tusk, and a 

 foot or more further down. Finding nothing more, the hole was 

 filled up, and the bones found came into the hands of Mr. W. F. 

 Cogswell, of Attica. At the time of my first visit to the place the tusk 

 was found to be in an unusually well preserved condition, considering 

 the harsh treatment it had received at the hands of the workmen, and 

 is of exceptional interest, as its small size indicates a quite young 

 animal. As far as could be judged at that time, with the ground 

 covered with snow, the spot where the bones lay apj^eared to be in a 

 narrow sink-hole extending beneath the bed of the road- way and 

 apparently connected with a somewhat larger sink-hole lying back of 

 the first range of lots on the west side of the street. 



In a brief report of these observations made to yourself soon after 

 this visit (Sixth Kept. State Geologist, p. 34, 1887), it was suggested 

 that, on account of the limited area of these sink-holes, the probability 

 of finding the remainder of the skeleton was such as to justify a 

 reasonable expenditure by the State Museum. An appropriation was 

 accordingly made for this purpose, and, acting under your directions, 

 I took charge of the excavations which were undertaken early in the 

 month of August, 1887. 



