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LETTER XXVI. 



MASTODON. 



W E now come to the examination of one of the most stupendous ani- 

 mals known, either in a recent or a fossil state ; and which, whether we 

 contemplate its original mode of existence, or the period at which it lived, 

 our minds cannot but be filled with astonishment. 



The first traces of this animal are sketched in a letter from Dr. Ma- 

 ther, of Boston, to Dr. Woodward, in 1712, and are transcribed from a 

 work in manuscript, entitled Biblia Americana. In this work, teeth and 

 bones of prodigious size, supposed to be human, are said to have been 

 found in Albany, in New England*. About the year 1740, numerous 

 similar bones were found in Kentucky, on the Ohio, and dispersed among 

 the European virtuosos. Buffon, speaking of these teeth and bones, found 

 by M, le Baron de Longueuil, M. de Bienville, and M. de Lignery, 

 says : " It can never be supposed that these teeth could have been 

 taken from the same head with the tusks." " In supposing this, it would 

 be necessary to admit the existence of an unknown animal, which had tusks 

 similar to those of the elephant, and grinders resembling those of the hip- 

 popotamus." Mem. de I'Acad. Roy. des Sciences, 1762. 



In 1765, several of these remains were found by Mr. G. Croghan, 



* Philosophical Transactions, abridged by Jones, Vol. V. Part II. p. 159. 



