MASTODONS OF THE ^TAALKILL, 377 



inhabit all of them. There are many in which there 

 are none. Where the marl exists, it forms the lowest 

 stratum, or lines the bottom of the pond. The peat and 

 bog lay above it. 



Whether the elephantine quadrupeds of former times 

 visited these miry places for the purpose of food or drink, 

 or for any other cause, they seem very frequently to have 

 died in them. When their bones sunk through the mud 

 into the layer of marl, they were secured from putrifac- 

 tion by its alkaline and antiseptic quality. But when 

 the mammoth expired in a swamp where there was no 

 marl, the bones passed more rapidly into decay. The 

 mud and water conspired to disorganize and destroy 

 them, from the time that they settled to the bottom. 



Those found by Mr. Peale had been preserved in a 

 marl bottom, and were in sound condition. 



The skeleton disinterred in my presence lay in a peat- 

 bog, without the presence of marl. The bones were con- 

 sequently more disorganized and rotten. I mean by this 

 that they were not entire and firm enough to be extract- 

 ed whole, far less to be connected together after they 

 were raised. 



The bones found were parts of the feet, legs, shoulder- 

 blade, back-bone, rump, lower-jaw, and the upper-jaw, 

 teeth and tusks. 



The teeth were in good preservation. More than 

 half the lower-jaw was entire. The condyles and angle 

 of the other half, crumbled to pieces by handling. Yet 

 the portion containing the. teeth was taken up nearly 

 whole. The exterior side was afterwards removed by 



48 



