VOt. XL.] FHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIOKS. 155 



Comet : it is seen in the west, under Venus, towards the s. w. It looks 

 through a tube of 10 or 1 1 feet long, like a dim or pale planet ; its tail tends 



upwards. 



--rn.'ifiivJ io ii.iiiivJ. li 



6. The same observed at Lisbon, by G. R. Vanbrugh, Esq. on board the Bur- 

 ford Man of War, p. 123. 

 At 6** 49"" p. M. we saw a Comet with a long brush tail ; at which time its 

 altitude was found 5° 15', its distance from Venus 18° 5' ; and Venus's altitude 

 was observed 20° 40'. It bore due west. 



A Description of some Mammoth's Bones, dug ujj in Siberia, proving them to 

 have belonged to Elephants. By John Phil. Breyne, M. D. F. R. S. 

 N°446, p. 124. 



In the Philos. Trans. N° 403 and 404, Sir Hans Sloane gave accounts of 

 elephants' teeth found underground. In the same year, viz. 1728, Dr. Breyne 

 was busied about the very same matter, especially to prove, that the extraordi- 

 nary large teeth and bones found under ground, and dug up in several places 

 of Siberia, by the name of mammoth's, or mammut's, teeth and bones, were, 



1. True bones and teeth of some large animals once living; and, 



2. That those animals were elephants, by the analogy of the teeth and bones 

 with the known ones of elephants. 



3. That they were brought and left there by the universal deluge. 



After that, viz. in the year 1730, Dr. Messerschmidt returned to Dantzic 

 from his travels through Siberia, and communicated some curious draughts of 

 a part of a skeleton, viz. of a very large skull, dens exertus et molaris, with 

 the OS femoris, belonging to the animal commonly called mammoth, found in 

 Siberia; by which our assertion, that the teeth and bones, called in Russia 

 mammoth's bones, are the true teeth and bones of elephants, is not only put 

 in a clearer light, but seems demonstrated beyond all doubt. 



In 1722, Dr. Messerschmidt found two very large teeth, which he sent to 

 Dr. Breyne. After he had made an accurate and nice examination of them, 

 he found that one is a dens molaris, or grinder, a foot broad, half a foot long, 

 and 3 inches thick, weighing 8 lb. and ^iij, pretty entire, except that it is 

 broken in two pieces, and the extremities of the roots spoiled. The substance 

 is between that of a bone and stone, except that on the upper part of the out- 

 side, some parallel undulated lines appear, which have still preserved the enamel 

 of the tooth. 



The other is a piece of a dens exertus, or tusk, 8 inches long and 3 inches 



X 2 



/ 



