INTRODUCTION. 23 



When attention was first directed to those great 

 bones, the opinion was taken up, probably a little too 

 hastily, that they belonged to the identical species that are 

 now found existing in the tropical regions ; and the 

 conclusion was, that they must have existed anterior 

 to some mighty convulsion of the globe, which had 

 blended in one mass of ruin the productions of all its 

 zones. The nearness to the surface at which these 

 remains were found, and the soft substances in which 

 they were imbedded, rendered it impossible to refer 

 them to any very remote period, or their covering to 

 any thing else than the accumulation of clay or mud 

 by water, or the growth of peat. The vulgar opinion 

 referred them to the deluge ; but that did not agree 

 with the facts. The bones themselves showed that the 

 species were not quite the same with the existing ones ; 

 and there was an inconsistency in supposing that the 

 elephant of the warm countries should have escaped 

 that catastrophe, while that of the temperate was lost. 

 Besides, wherever the bones occurred, the debris over 

 them appeared to have been accumulated gradually, 

 by deposits from rivers, or in caves, or by the growth 

 of mosses and other plants. 



These circumstances led the more observant and 

 reasoning naturalists to conclude, that, without any 

 necessary intervention of a deluge to drown them, or 

 to waft them from the regions of the equator, these 

 animals had, at one time, lived in the same countries in 

 which their bones are found ; and this conclusion was 

 further corroborated by the fact, that, though these 

 remains are found in North America, there is no trace 

 of an Elephant in the tropical part of that continent. In 



