378 Miscellanies. 



and a /ia/f long, and/«e Inches in diameter, and as it belonged near 

 the middle part of the tusk, the whole was of great size and near 

 the root vvas probably eight inches in diameter. The large piece 

 and many fragments are now in the possession of Mr. Butler, the en- 

 terprising proprietor of the museum in this city. 



These fossils were found April 2d, 1833, in excavating the earth 

 for the passage of water at a saw-mill. It is said that there were no 

 indications of other bones or teeth. About twenty years before, a 

 thigh bone of some huge animal was found in removing the earth a 

 (ew rods below in the same bank. The whole probably belonged 

 to the same animal, and more may yet be discovered on further re- 

 moval of the earth. The thigh hone is said to be in the possession 

 of a gentleman in an adjoining town to Perinton, but I have not been 

 able to discover it. The tusk lay shont four feet below the surface, 

 and partly under the stump of a large forest tree. The place was 

 covered with forest a few years ago ; I have conversed with several 

 individuals who were at the place, and knew the circumstances, and 

 have examined the remains in the museum. There can be no doubt 

 about the character of these remains and that they had been buried 

 for centuries in the earth. The place is in the road, at the Trondi- 

 quot creek, a little distance from the place called Fullum's Basin, 

 perhaps ten miles from Lake Ontario. 



The geological relations of these fossils next merits attention. In 

 this case there is no uncertainty. The Irondiquot creek is nearly 

 on a level with Lake Ontario for four or five miles, and at this place, 

 perhaps from the lake, is not more than fifty or eighty feet above it. 

 The banks of the creek are sand thrown up into hillocks and sloping 

 sides, from twenty to more than a hundred feet high ; the sand being 

 spread over a large extent of the country. The formation is evi- 

 dently diluvial, resting on the transition rocks of this section. In 

 .various places the ground, coarse and fine, is mingled with this sand, 

 and boulders of the primitive rocks brought from a region far at the 

 north. On the surface we find the erratic group, in boulders of 

 granite, gneiss, mica slate, hornblende rock, and quartz. These 

 boulders are of various magnitudes. Some of them are large rocks, 

 weighing many tons, and showing manifest evidences of the grinding 

 power of sand and water, by which they were rounded. The Irondi- 

 quot runs nearly parallel to the Genesee, but is much lower, as the 

 canal descends from the Genesee by several locks and then crosses 

 the Irondiquot by the great embankment of eighty feet above the 



