168 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



DECEMBER 4, 1^3.<. 



MISCELLANY. 



From ike Eastern Argus. 

 THE SlVOIV-STOll.-lI.- 



The coki winds swept the mountain's height, 



And pathless was the dreary wild. 

 And 'mid the cheerless hours of night 



A mother wander'd with her child. 

 As through the drilled snow... she press'd 

 The babe was sleeping on her breast. 



And colder still the winds did blow, 



And darker hours of night came on, 

 And deeper grew the drills of snow. — 



Herlimhs were chill'd, her strength was gone — 

 O God, she cried, in accents wild. 

 If I must perish, save my child. 



She stript her mantle from her breast, 



And bared her bosom to the storm. 

 And round the child she wrapt the vest, 



And smiled to think her babe was warm, 

 With one cold kiss, one lear the shed, 

 And sunk upon a snowy bed. 



At dawn, a traveller passed by. 



And saw her 'neath a snowy veil — 

 The frost of death was in her eye, 



Her cheek was cold, and hard, and pale — 

 He moved the robe from off the child ; 

 The babe looked up and sweetly smiled. 



SOKES OF THE GIGAJVTIC MASTODON, 



Improperly called Mammoth, found in tin: vicinity of 

 Nashville; communicated by G. Troost, Pro- 

 fessor of Chemistry, Mineralogy, etc., in the Uni- 

 versity of JYashvillc. 



Many conjectures have beerrformeil respecting 

 the first inhabitants of out- happy country, and 

 several hypotheses have been advanced to deter- 

 mine their origin. Whether they came from Asia 

 or Africa — whether they were the same race as out- 

 present Indians, or whether they belonged to more 

 enlightened races of men. Although these inves- 

 tigations extend, comparatively speaking, over but 

 a short space of time, we arc nevertheless] quite in 

 the dark, and can only form snir.e probably true 

 conjectures concerning them. 



We can, however, speak with more certainty of 

 beings that inhabited this country, during a more 

 remote period of time — beings that are not only 

 anterior to historical record, but perhaps anterior 

 to the existeuce of man. I allude to some large 

 animals, the remains of which we find at present 

 in several parts of the United States; and, though 

 several species have been found, only one, the lar- 

 gest of them, the gigantic Mastodon, seems to have 

 been peculiar to this country. 



I learned accidentally, a few weeks since, tlrfU 

 some large bones had been found near Liberty 

 Meeting House, in Williamson county, on the farm 

 of Mr. Thomas Holt. I went immediately to the 

 place, but I was already too late to prevent tin 

 mutilation and destruction of these relics. I en 

 gaged some men to dig for the remaining portions, 

 and found yet the under jaw bone, and several 

 fragments of other bones. Mr. If. bad the kind 

 ncss to offer me the whole collection, which is 



* In the month of December, 1821, a Mr. niake, with his 

 wife and an infant, were passing over the Green mountain, 

 near the I own of Arlington, Vl. in a sleigh with one horsed 

 the dr.fimjj snow rendered it impossible lor the horse to pro- 

 ceed; Mr. lilake set oil' on fool in search of assistance, and 

 perished in the storm before he could reach a human dwelling. 

 The mother alarmed (as is supposed) at his long absence, went 

 in quest of him with the infant in her arms. She was found in 

 the morning, dead, a short distance from the sleigh. The child 

 was wrapped in her cloak, and survived the perils of the cold 

 and the storm. 



composed of fragments of ribs, the alias, and sev- 

 eral other vertebra-, a scapula, the heads of the 

 humerus, ulna, femur/and tibia, with fragments of 

 the bones; the radius, several bones of the tarsus 

 and carpus, with the nieto tarsal, and meta carpal 

 bones, must of the latter entire, as well as sonic 

 phalanges. On the under jaw bone, the coronoid 

 apophyses are wanting-; it has one of its teeth, 

 while of the other, the crown is broken off, and 

 the roots alone remain. I obtained only a small 

 fragment of a tusk, the whole being crumbled to 

 pieces. The parts of the skeleton which are in 

 my possession, are pretty sound, and partly pene- 

 trated with hydrate of iron, which makes them 

 very heavy. There seems to be no dotrbt that the 

 whole animal was there, before it underwent de- 

 composition, as the bones were found in a space of 

 not larger than about twenty feet square; never- 

 theless, they lay without any order, and it is prob- 

 able that they were a long while upon the surface 

 before they were buried — which must account for 

 the disappearance of some large bones, as part of 

 the head and pelvis. 



The animal to which these bones belonged must 

 have been very old; not only tie external thick 

 enamel of the transverse eminences of the maxil- 

 lary teeth has entirely disappeared, but the whole 

 of these eminences are worn down, so that the 

 erovvn is nearly flat, and shows itself in four large 

 irregular transverse lozenges, formed by the basis 

 of the before mentioned eminences. 



These bones were found about nine miles from 

 Liberty Meeting House, north-east corner of Wil- 

 liamson county, about eleven miles south-east of 

 Nashville. They were embedded in a rich black 

 mould, resting on a stiff", ferruginous loam. I 

 found in the black parts some pieces of ferruginous 

 sand-stone, or rather grains of sand, agglutinated 

 by hydrate of iron. It is a small run or rivulet 

 which carries off the water in the vicinity towards 

 Mill Creek, and is mostly dry. The surrounding 

 country is generally more or less rolling with small 

 hills. The place where the bones were found lies 

 between two elevations. They lie not quite three 

 feet under the surface; in fact, the head of the 

 femur long since projected above ground, and was 

 used in rainy seasons when the run contained wa- 

 ter, for a step to cross it, there being a road there 

 also for carts and wagons, which must have frac- 

 tured many of the bones. 



A few years ago, another skeleton, or part of a 

 one, was found not far from the place mentioned 

 above, on the premises of Dr. Webb, near the 

 Harpeth river. It lay about six feet under ground, 

 in limestone. It was discovered by digging for 

 the sinking of a tan vat, and lay in a stiff, sandy 

 clay or loam, in a place somewhat lower than the 

 above-mentioned skeleton. The bones were de- 

 stroyed by the laborers, except a few fragments, 

 which are now in my possession, and for which 1 

 am indebted to the kindness of Dr. Webb. They 

 are the extreme point of a tusk, the crown of a 

 tooth, a small tooth, and ^ome fragments of bones. 

 Judging from this crown, they belonged to a young 

 adult animal ; the enamel is not injured; the trans- 

 verse eminences are perfect, only the enamel of 

 the small tooth is partly worn off. The bones 

 were much altered, and soon crumbled to dust as 

 soon as they were exposed to the action of the air. 

 The tusk is very much of a chalky nature. 



1 have in my cabinet, another small tooth, which 

 was found near Danbridge, Jefferson county, E. 

 Tennessee. And 1 am told, a bone of a Mastodon 



was found in digging for brick clay, in the brick- 

 yard of Mr. Anient, of our city. 



Remains of an Eltphant found in Tennessee. — 

 Besides the remains of the Mastodon, we find those 

 of tin extinct species of Elephant, called by lSlu- 

 menbach, Elephaa primo-genus. It is the real 

 mammoth, at least if our fossil Elephants be anal- 

 agOUS to the one found in Siberia. If it be the 

 same, it must have had a different appearance from 

 the living species of the present day ; as the one 

 which was found in Siberia, under ice, hnd a thick 

 c«at of wool and hair. 



I am indebted to the kindness uf .Mr. Littlefield, 

 one of the members of our Senate, for a molar 

 tooth of this animal. I cannot say any thing of 

 the situation in which it was deposited. It was 

 discovered after a freshet, on the banks of Green's 

 Lick Creek, a little creek running across the plan- 

 tation of Mr. L., and falling into Duck River, a 

 few miles below Columbia, Maury county. The 

 tooth is much altered ; its enamel is brittle, anil 

 has lost much of its original constituents — it being 

 now soluble in nitric acid, under a constant and 

 brisk effervescence. 



FRUIT TREES. 

 Ornamental TREES. ROSES, FLOWER- 

 ING PLANTS, &c. Nursery of WILLIAM 

 KENRICK in Newtok, oh miles from Boston, 

 by the City Milts. 

 This .Nursery now comprises a rare and extraordinary collec- 

 tion of fruit trees, Trees and Shrubs of Ornament, Roses, &c. 

 and covers the most of IS acres. Of new celebrated Pears alone, 

 150 kinds, a port of which, having already been proved in our 

 climate, are specially recommended. — Of Apples 200 kinds — 

 Peaches 115 kinds — Cherries, 55 kinds — Plums, Nectarines, 

 Almonds, Apricots, Quinces, Grape Vines, Currants, Raspber- 

 ries, Gooseberries, Strawberries, Figs, &.c. &c.»— selections 

 from the best varieties known — a collection in unequal propor- 

 tions of 800 varieties of fruit. 



White mulberries for silk wornts — the fruit poor. Also the 

 Mob. us Multicaulis or Neic Chinese Mulberry, a beauti- 

 ful linii tree, so superior for silk worms to all others. 



Of ROSES. A superb collection of from 300 to 400 hardy 

 and China varieties ; selections from numerous importations, 

 and first rate sources. Horse Chesnuts as hardy as oaks — 

 Weeping- Willows. Catalpas, Mountain Ash, Silver Firs, Ve- 

 netian Sumach, Altheas, Honeysuckles, Azaleas, &c. &c. — 

 in all, of Ornamental trees, and shrubs, G50 varieties. Ol 

 Herbaceous flowering plants, a choice select. On of 2tJ0 varieties, 

 including; the Pceonies, Moutan and Papaveracea — and 2± other 

 kinds — and 83 splendid varieties of double Dahlias. 



Gentlemen are invited lo lorward their orders early— early is 

 Autumn being an excellent season for transplanting. Address to 

 WILLIAM KENRICK. Newton. Trees, &c. delivered in 

 Boston free ot charge for transportation, and suitably packed, 

 and from thence when ordered dtilv forwarded, by land or sea.. 

 Or orders will reeehe the same attention if left with Geo. C. 

 Bu.KR.ETT, who is agent, at his seed store and New England 

 Farmer Office, Nos. 51 & 52, North Market Street, Boston, 

 Catalogues gratis on application. Jv 17 



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