JLLLVSTRATI\jS. 67 



i jus doctrine of a chain of being is equally a superstition of philosophy and a 

 tlream of poetry. Many links have been broken in this imaginary chain ; many 

 species have been destroyed, and yet the harmony of nature has not been dis- 

 turbed. The indefatigable Cuvier has classed the fossil remains of seventy-eight 

 different quadrupeds, of which forty-nine are distinct species hitherto unknown 

 to naturalists. 



Since writing the above I have received the following well-written and inge.- 

 nious letter from a gentleman who was present when the skeleton mounted io 

 Peale's Museum was discovered, and whose knowledge of the subject and the 

 surrounding country has given such an interest to the communication that I hav*i 

 thought fit to insert it at large. 



DEAR SIR, 



At the Introductory Discourse delivered by you to the " Literary and PhUo> 

 sophical Society of New York" I was present, and highly gratified at the organ- 

 ization of that society. It is gratifying to perceive institutions of this nature, 

 having for their object useful information, springing up at a period of national 

 peril and pressure. Th acquisitions of science, in such times, and the devoted- 

 ness to research, under such circumstances, are unerring evidences of the ad- 

 vancement of learning in our country. 



The sources of information in our own state, as well as those of the country 

 generally, afforded peculiar gratification to your delighted auditory. Amongst 

 ther objects and discoveries of importance, the remarks on the fossil bones ot 

 the mammoth discovered in our state particularly attracted my attention. Con- 

 ceiving that a further development of this discovery might be interesting, and 

 that the facts concerning it may be proper, I have ventured to address you this 

 letter. 



If the disclosures I shall make, and the opinions I may suggest, can be of use to 

 you, they are very much at your service. Should they be of no other use they 

 may indicate to the more acute observer, where are occult objects worthy of 

 philosophical scrutiny and investigation. 



Having participated in the procuring of those fossils and professing to be well 

 acquainted with their discovery, as also the topography of the circumjacen* 

 country, I shall proceed to give you a plain detail of the facts in relation thereto. 



The first discovery of these fossils was made in the town of Montgomery, in 

 the county of Orange, about thirty years since, by the reverend mr. Annin 

 The place of discovery was in a sunken and miry meadow; in digging a ditch to car- 

 ry off the excess of water, several of the harder parts or bones of the mammoth 

 skeleton were dscovered ; these were the ribs, two teeth, CjrrinderO and prr-f 



