$6 NOTES AN 



its mouth, the line from the withers to the end of the under jaw being about ne> 

 third of the line from the withers to the ground. 



Mr. Peale says, that there are many reasons to suppose that he was of an am- 

 phibious nature, and is decidedly of opinion that he lived entirely on flesh or fish. 



I fancy that while some may be willing to concur with nor. Peale as to its am- 

 phibious nature, few will agree with Pownall in its being an aquatic animal. 

 The shortness of its neck might have been supplied by a trunk. The points 

 wherein it resembles in its formation certain fish, are only indicative of amazing 

 strength ; and there is no strong objection to believe that it was also graminivor- 

 ous, and drew its supplies from the vegetable as well as the animal kingdom. 



Upon the whole we may, with considerable confidence, come to the following 

 conclusions : 



1. That the asiatic and african living elephants and Siberian mammoth are 

 specifically distinct. 



2. That the New -York, Ohio, or american mammoth is specifically, if not 

 generically, different from them. 



3. That it was carnivorous, and lived upon the land. 



4. That it may have also been graminivorous or omnivorous, and amphibious. 



5. That it was not of a larger size than the living elephant : and, lastly, that 

 it is extinct. And let not this latter assertion be deemed incompatible with the 

 designs of the deity. Individuals perish, and why not species and genera ? The 

 dispensations of providence are above the reach of human sagacity : much less 

 can we object the fanciful system of the arabian metaphysicians, adopted by 

 Pope in his Essay on Man, and exhibited in the following beautiful lines : 



" See, through this air, this ocean, and this earth, 

 All matter quick, and bursting into birth. 

 Above, how high, progressive life may go f 

 Around, how wide ! how deep extend below ! 

 Vast chain of being ! which from God began, 

 Nature's ethereal, human, angel, man. 

 Beast, bird, fish, insect, what no eye can see, 

 ]$o glass can reach ; from infinite to thee 

 From thee to nothing. On superior powers 

 Were we to press, inferior might on ours j 

 Or in the full creation leave a void, 

 Where, one step broken, the great scale's destroy'd. 

 From nature's chain, whatever link you strike, 

 Tenth, or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike '* 



