104 
NEW-YORK FAUNA. 
4. At Geneseo, Livingston county, (see Am. Jour. Vol. 12 , p. 381,) the greater part of a 
skeleton was found in a marsh two feet and a half below the surface, in vegetable mould, 
and resting upon a bed of fine white gravel. 
5 . In 1834, the molar tooth of this species was found near Jamestown, Chautauque county. 
This is stated in the 27th volume of the American Journal of Science to have been two and 
a half inches long and one inch broad, and to have been found ten feet below the surface. 
6 . A fine portion of the lower jaw of a young mastodon, from the town of Montgomery, 
Orange count}*. This specimen enlarged our knowledge of the dentition of the mastodon, 
exhibiting two short straight tusks from four to six inches long. It would appear that these 
lower incisors are in some instances permanent for a considerable period; but whether this is 
a sexual characteristic, or an accidental case of anomaly, is not yet determined. Upon this 
specimen, however, the reader will find an attempt made to construct a new genus under the 
name of Tetracaulodon. 
7. In the town of Shawangunk, Ulster county. 
8 . At Perrinton, near Rochester, Monroe county. 
9. At Coeymans, Albany county. 
10. At Hinsdale, Cattaraugus county, a tusk was found seventeen feet beneath the surface. 
The soil was composed of alternate strata of sand and gravel. 
11 . In 1841, in a bed of marl three miles south of Le Roy, weighing two pounds. 
12 . A tooth was found in digging a mill-race on Goat Island, Niagara county, twelve or 
thirteen feet below the surface. 
The Great Mastodon, or Mammoth* as it is sometimes improperly called, equalled or 
exceeded the Elephant in bulk, and greatly resembled him in shape. The greatest difference 
in this latter particular was in the elevation of the fore shoulders, while in the elephant the 
back was regularly arched. Cuvier, from an examination of the situation and direction of the 
pelvis, inferred that the belly must have been smaller, and consequently the intestines less 
voluminous than in the elephant; and this, in connection with the structure of the teeth, leads 
us to the conclusion that the mastodon did not exclusively feed on leaves, limbs and tops of 
young trees. The position of the molars, which diverge in front from each other, also varies from 
those of the elephant, and much more nearly resembles those of the hog and hippopotamus. 
To these animals it would seem that he is still farther allied, in his fondness for swamps and 
marshy places, where his bones are for the most part found under circumstances which lead 
to the irresistible conclusion that he lived and perished in those places. It was at first 
supposed that it was exclusively a northern animal, and like the fossil elephant of Siberia, 
* The impropriety consists merely in using a term which had been specially applied by the inhabitants of Siberia to a fossil 
elephant; but as the two fossil animals are both gigantic, and nearly allied, we saw no reason for announcing in characters as 
large as a modern play-bill, the following label over the bones of the Mastodon in the Collection of the Garden of Plants at 
Palis: “ Le Grand Mastodon, improprement nomir.d Mammoulh par les Anglo-Americains ”! We believe this offensive label 
has been recently removed. 
