THE TWIN ISLANDS. 159 



straight line, instead of being as tortuous as a writhing 



serpent. 



That it has changed its course for many a rod, even in 

 historic times, there is evidence in maps attached to old 

 deeds. That it was equally erratic in prehistoric times 

 is also demonstrable, but not with so little labor. In 

 several tracts of the lower lying meadows ancient chan- 

 nels can still be traced, and when ditches have been 

 cut, I have gathered many a curious relic of the Ind- 

 ians, left upon what was the bank of the stream, centu- 

 ries ago. 



Where I have found relics of the Indians, I have long 

 hoped to find the skeleton of a mastodon, or at least 

 isolated bones of the creature. Yery possibly I may 

 never make such a discovery, yet there is no inherent 

 improbability in the matter. Bones of the mastodon 

 have been found on these meadows. My grandfather 

 picked up a humerus, within a few rods of where I saw 

 the gallinule, and the specimen was long in Peale's Phil- 

 adelphia museum. 



There has been an astonishing amount of twaddle 

 written concerning the subject of the contemporaneity 

 of man and the mastodon in this country. It would be 

 just as rational to question man's sharing the primitive 

 forests with the elk and cougar. 



My friend Dr. Lockwood told us the story years ago 

 in a few telling words. He wrote : " It is plain that the 

 mastodon came into what is now New Jersey ere the 

 ice-sheet began. It receded south before it. It followed 

 the thawing northward, and so again possessed the land. 

 It occupied this part of the country when its shore-line 



