504 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO J 7 68. 



form density: and has thence made a degree of the equator equal to 57200 

 French toises.* 



The measure of a second-pendulum, at the equator, Dr. M. had from M. de 

 la Condamine, as was said before: it was corrected for the centrifugal force, and 

 the resistance of the air; and the moon's distance, as revolving round the earth 

 at rest, was corrected for the sun's disturbing force; which is done either by 

 diminishing that distance in the subtriplicate ratio of 178725 to 177725; or by 

 diminishing the length of the pendulum in the simple ratio of these numbers. 

 In this last correction he was favoured with the advice and assistance of the Rev. 

 Mr. Price, and of the Astronomer Royal, ff. r. s. 



v. Observations on the Bones, commonbj supposed to be Elephants' Bones, tvhich 



have been found near the River Ohio in America. By fVilliam Hunter, 



M. D., F. R. S. p. 34. 



Naturalists, even those of our own times, have entertained very different opi- 

 nions concerning fossil ivory, and the large teeth •\- and bones, which have been 

 dug up in great numbers in various parts of the world. At first, some thought 

 them animal substances, and others mineral. When only a certain number of 

 observations had been collected, these substances were determined to be mineral : 

 but, the subject having been more carefully examined, they were found certainly 

 to be parts of animals. After this point was settled, a dispute arose, to what 

 animal they belonged. The more general opinion was, that they were bones of 

 the elephant; and the great similitude of the fossil tusks to the real elephants' 

 teeth, gave this opinion considerable credit. It was liable however to great ob- 

 jections; the bones were observed to be larger than those of the elephant; and it 

 was thought strange that elephants should have been formerly so numerous in 

 western countries, where they are no longer natives, and in cold countries, Siberia 

 particularly, where they cannot now live. 



We had information from Muscovy, that the inhabitants of Siberia believed 

 them to be the bones of the mammoth, an animal of which they told and be- 

 lieved strange stories. But modern philosophers have held the mammoth to be 

 as fabulous as the centaur. Of late years the same sort of tusks and teeth, with 

 some other large bones, have been found, in considerable numbers, near the 



* This was computed on the supposition, that a degree of the meridian at lat, 4-9-j'' '* 57 1'SS toises , 

 but if that degree is, by a correction of M. Picart's operations, found to be only 5707 o toises ; the 

 diameter of the equator, here used, ought to be diminished by about y^vvxs parts. — Grig. 



f It has already been observed, in the notes on Mr. CoUinson's paper relative to the teeth of this 

 animal, that Mr. Pennant and others have considered it as a species of elephant, and that it is llie 

 American elephant of Pennant's History of Quadrupeds. 



