FAMILY ELEPHANTID.E. 
105 
furnished with hair adapted for its residence in a cold region. Other species, however, 
were soon discovered in South America, and subsequently in the Burman Empire/ The genus 
Mastodon then embraces species found in almost every part of the world, and in all latitudes. 
In the United States, but a single species has been found; and its remains, thus far, have 
been found along the Atlantic coast, from New-York to the Gulf of Mexico. In South 
America, he appears to have been replaced by another species ( angustidens ). 
The geological period at which this huge animal existed, has occasioned much attention. 
It must have been among the most recently extinct of all quadrupeds, unless we except some 
species whose generic types still exist on this continent. Rejecting as altogether fabulous the 
pretended discovery of the stomach of this animal, with its contents, consisting of reeds, twigs 
and grass, as detailed by Barton (Med. and Phys. Jour. Vol. 3, p. 23), it has certainly been 
discovered in positions indicating that the animal perished and left its bones on or near the 
surface where they are now found. Cuvier states that the mastodons discovered near the 
Great Osage river, were almost all found in a vertical position, as if the animals had merely 
sunk in the mud (Oss. Foss., Ed. alt. Vol. 1, p. 217, 222). Since that time, many others 
have been found in swamps, a short distance beneath the surface, (frequently some of the 
bones appearing above the soil,) in an erect position; conveying the perfect impression that 
the animal (probably in search of its food) had wandered into a swamp, and unable to extricate 
himself, had died on the spot. Such an incident doubtless occurred to the animal whose 
bones we assisted to disinter, some years ago, at Longbranch, New-Jersey. He was in a 
natural vertical position, his body supported by the turf soil or black earth, and his feet resting 
upon a gravelly bottom. The occurrence of the bones of other animals not yet extinct, in 
company with those of the mastodon, is not a conclusive evidence of their cotemporaneous 
existence; but we cannot deny that it furnishes strong reasons for believing them to have 
been of a very recent date. We think it highly probable that the mastodon was alive in this 
country at a period when its surface was not materially different from its actual state, and 
that he may have existed cotemporaneously with man. 
There is one fact connected with the discovery of the bones of the mastodon in this country, 
which appears to have been passed over as doubtful or apocryphal. We allude to the possi¬ 
bility, that upon a due investigation, some of the softer parts may be detected. Mr. Graham, 
an intelligent observer, when describing (Med. Repos. Vol. 4, p. 414) the mastodon bones in 
Montgomery, states, that “ hair was found three inches long, and of a dun color.” Judge 
Miller, in describing the appearance of the skeleton at Shawangunk, Ulster county, says, that 
“ around and in the immediate vicinity were locks and tufts of hair of a dun brown, an inch 
“ and a half to two and a half inches long, and in some instances four to seven inches in 
“ length.” This description corresponds with the specimen from the fossil elephant of Siberia, 
in the Cabinet of the Lyceum. In the account of another specimen, Mitchill (Appendix to 
Cuvier’s Theory) says, “ Beneath the bones, and immediately around them, was a stratum of 
“ coarse vegetable stems and fibres resembling chopped straw, or rather drift stuff of the sea; 
“ for it seemed to be mixed with broken fibres of conferva, like those of the Atlantic shore.” 
Whether the original observers were deceived by mistaking this appearance for hair, or 
Fauna. 14 
