80 Cabinet of the Atheneum at Zanesville. 



ber and planks, until the sides of the canal were built up and secured, 

 with gravel and earth. 



The fossil head of the animal which belongs to the order Rumin- 

 antia and probably to an extinct species of the genus Ovis, was found 

 at the depth of eight feet in company with two others, near it. The 

 bones of the mastodon, and the right halves of the lower jaws of two 

 extinct animals of the order Rodentia, or Gnawers, with a radius or 

 bone of the fore arm, were found at the depth of fourteen feet, resting 

 on a bed of pebbles and gravel. They were safely preserved from 

 decay by the black carbonaceous mud under which they lie, but had 

 been considerably worn by attrition, before being deposited here, 

 which might have been at the same period, and by the same catas- 

 trophe which covered the districts north and west of this with prim- 

 itive bowlders. One of the heads of the Oves, and one of the half 

 jaws of the Rodentia, are now in the cabinet of the Atheneum. The 

 drawings of these relics are of one fourth the natural size, and will 

 assist the reader in understanding the descriptions which I shall at- 

 tempt to give. 



The radius or hone of the fore arm. — Description. — Ten inches 

 in length, two inches across the head, and one and a half inches 

 across the carpal extremity, with a strong process on the outer side. 

 A moderately elevated longitudinal process runs nearly the whole 

 length of the bone, with a profound groove beside it. From the 

 thickness of the bone in proportion to the length, I should infer that 

 powerful muscles had been attached to it. Fig. 15. 



Upper Incisor. — This tooth is very much curved, embracing the 

 larger portion of a semicircle. Measuring on the outer margin of 

 the tooth, it is eight inches in length; but being broken and shorten- 

 ed at both the cutting and radical extremities, it must originally have 

 been not less than ten or twelve inches. Diameter, seven eighths of 

 an inch. A section of the tooth is nearly triangular, as shovi^n at 

 Fig. 18, with the two inner faces plano-concave, and the outer face 

 rounded and deeply grooved. Fig. 16. 



Lower Jaw. — The maxillary portion of the jaw, is eight inches 

 long, and four inches wide across the articulating portion. The con- 

 dyloid process is broken and gone. Molar teeth. — The molares are 

 four in number, standing obliquely to the hne of the alveolar process. 

 The grinding surface of each tooth is channeled, in the manner of 

 ruminating animals, five eighths of an inch in diameter, with the front 

 tooth a little longer than the back one. They are firmly placed in 

 the jaw for grinding hard ligneous substances. 



