162 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 



there may have been in the Western Hemisphere, for 

 most of them are known from scattered teeth, single 

 jaws, and odd bones, so that we cannot tell just what 

 differences may be due to sex or individual variation. 1 

 It is certain, however, that several distinct kinds, or 

 species, have inhabited various parts of North America, 

 while remains of others occur in South America. The 

 mastodon, however, the one most recent in point of 

 time, and the best known because its remains are scat- 

 tered far and wide over pretty much the length and 

 breadth of the United States, and are found also in 

 southern and western Canada, is that on which the law 

 of priority seems to have inflicted the inappropriate 

 name of Mammut americanum though dissenters who 

 feel that it is better to be true than to be consistent still 

 cling to Mastodon americanus, and unless otherwise 

 specified this alone will be meant when the name 

 mastodon is used. In some localities the mastodon 

 seems to have abounded, but between the Hudson and 

 Connecticut Rivers indications of its former presence are 

 rare, and east of that they are practically wanting. The 

 best preserved specimens come from Ulster and Orange 

 Counties, New York, for these seem to have furnished 

 the animal with the best facilities for getting mired. 

 Just west of the Catskills, parallel with the valley of the 

 Hudson, is a series of meadows, bogs, and pools marking 

 the sites of swamps that came into existence after the 

 recession of the mighty ice-sheet that long covered 

 eastern North America, and in these many a mastodon, 

 seeking for food or water, or merely wallowing in the 

 mud, stuck fast and perished miserably. And here to- 



At the present writing Professor Osborn is engaged in the 

 task of examining all types and available specimens of Mastodons and 

 Mammoths with a view to determining just how many species there 

 are and what are their inter-relationships and lines of descent. 



