PACHYDERMATA. 181 



Elephant was discovered, in a mass of frozen earth, 

 at the mouth of the river Lena, in Siberia, on the 

 shores of the Frozen Ocean. It was in a wonderful 

 state of preservation ; the flesh was eatable by bears, 

 wolves, and dogs ; the skin was present, clothed with 

 reddish wool and black hairs, and there was a long 

 mane on the neck. It was as large as the existing 

 kinds, being nine feet four inches high, and the tusks 

 measured nine feet six inches along the curve. For 

 how many ages it had lain thus buried, it is impos- 

 sible to conjecture ; that Siberia was its native re- 

 gion, is evident from the multitudes of fossil skeletons 

 which abound in it, some of whose tusks are fifteen 

 feet in length ; and that it was at that time a cold 

 country, appears from its woolly covering. It is 

 commonly known as the Mammoth, (Elephas Primi- 

 genius.) 



Another genus of trunk-bearing Pachyderms, but 

 which is not known to exist in a living state, is found 

 in great abundance in North America. It is the 

 Mastodon* of the Ohio, the larger species of which 

 (M. Giganteum) far exceeded the Elephant in size. 

 The bones are in a very fresh state, compared with 

 fossil bones generally : in one of the skeletons, in 

 Virginia, was found .a very interesting proof of the 

 food of the animal ; a mass of little branches, grass, 

 and leaves, in a half-bruised state, among which was 

 a species of rose, still common there, was enclosed 

 in a kind of sac, probably the stomach ; while there 

 are records of the Indians having found, attached 



* Maa-roV, mastos, a teat, and olous, odous, a tooth. 



