348 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



position, as, for instance, in the Valley of the Ohio, as if 

 the animal had died after having sunk into the mud. 



The presence of the bones of Mastodons in the super- 

 ficial strata of the earth has given rise to many fabulous 

 accounts ; thus they have, at different times, been con- 

 sidered to belong to the skeletons of giants. The 

 Indians of North America have even introduced them 

 into their legends; and the Creeks pretend that the 

 Great Spirit annihilated this gigantic species lest it 

 should destroy all other living beings. One male is 

 said to have escaped in a wounded condition, who still 

 lives among the great lakes, where he took refuge. The 

 aborigines of Canada regard the Mastodon as the origin 

 of still existing species, and they call this animal the 

 father of the buffaloes. 



NOTE XV. 



As the discussions relating to Phlebenterism have 

 spread even beyond the limits of the scientific world, 

 we think a brief sketch of the subject may be expedient. 



Cuvier, and after him all zoologists, maintained that, 

 in the Mollusca, there existed a system of closed vessels, 

 by which the circulation was accomplished in these 

 animals, exactly in the same manner as in the Mammalia. 

 A few exceptional facts had indeed been noted by Cuvier 

 himself in the Aplysias, by Milne Edwards in the 

 Ascidians, and by Professors Owen and Valenciennes in 

 the Nautilus ; when the study of a small Nudibranchiate 

 Gasteropod on our sea coasts led me to the consideration 

 of this and several other analogous questions. Amongst 

 other characteristics hitherto regarded as some of the 

 most constant in the Mollusca, anatomists had always 

 admitted the existence of a simple intestine, and of a 

 distinct and well developed liver. Now, in studying 



