MAMMOTH. 66$ 



the county of Orange, state of New York, about sixty miles 

 N.N.W. from the city of this name, -where it was accidentally 

 discovered by farmers who were digging shell marie for manure. 

 The skeleton measured eleven feet high, seventeen and a half long, 

 and five feet eight inches wide: the under jaw alone weighed 

 sixty-three pounds, and the whole skeleton about 1000 pounds. 

 The tusks were different in form and substance from those of the 

 elephant ; the spinous processes over the shoulders were prodigi- 

 ously large and ridgy, so that the back must have been s'harp like 

 that of the hog; the ribs were short, narrow, and placed edge- 

 wise, and altogether unlike those of the elephant, which are broad 

 and flat ; the tail, unlike that of the Siberian mammoth, appeared 

 to have been long, broad, and flat; the scapulae were unlike those 

 of other animals. The Philosophical Society of Philadelphia is in 

 possession of a skeleton in some degree more perfect. 



The generic name of megatherium was first bestowed upon this 

 animal by M. Cuvier, who appears accurately to have examined 

 its skeleton : and to this generic name he added the trivial name 

 of Americanum, to distinguish the individual from which his ob- 

 servations was made. In Dr. Shaw it occurs under the name of 

 manis megatherium. 



The following is M. Cuvier's description. 



" This skeleton is fossil. It was found a hundred feet beneath 

 the surface of a sandy soil, in the vicinity of the river of La Plata. 

 It only wants the tail, and some pair-bones, which have been 

 imitated in wood ; and the skeleton is now mounted at Madrid. 

 This skeleton is twelve feet (French) long, by six feet in height. 

 The spine is composed of seven cervical, sixteen dorsal, and four 

 lumber vertebrae : it has consequently sixteen ribs. The sacrum 

 is short : the ossa illia is very broad; and their plane being almost 

 perpendicular to the spine, they form a very open pelvis. There 

 is no pubis or ischium : at least they are wanting in this skeleton, 

 and there is no mark of their having existed when the animal 

 was alive. 



" The thigh bones are excessively thick, and the leg bones still 

 more so in proportion. The entire sole of the foot bore on the 

 ground in walking. The shoulder-blade is much broader than 

 long. The clavicles are perfect, and the bones of the fore-arm 

 are distinct and moveable upon each other. The fore limbs are 

 longer than the hind. To judge by the form of the last phalanxes, 

 2u4 



