35:3 Transactions of the Oeologicol Society of Pennsylvania. 



critical notice of the various organic remains hitherto discovered in 

 North America. 



Of this very important paper it is difficuU to give an analysis, as 

 it is drawn up in a very condensed form, and will be read with much 

 advantage by all those who are desirous of accurate information on 

 this very interesting but imperfectly explored department of Ameri- 

 can Geology. In comparative anatomy and fossil zoology we have 

 great need of zeal, science, and discriminating tact. On these sub- 

 jects Dr. Harlan is justly regarded as a high authority, especially 

 m facts relating to this country. 



The great Mastodon.— VLq justly remarks that " in most instances 

 'there is sufficient evidence that these animals died and left their bones 

 to become fossilized in the precise situations in which they are now 

 found ; not only are the teeth and bones of this animal unAvorn by 

 the action of running waters, but the skeleton is not unfrequently 

 discovered in a standing position, just as the animal had sunk in the 

 marsh or mud, clay and sand, and therefore that they have been de- 

 stroyed subsequently to the action of those causes which formed the 

 beds of gravel or detritus in and upon which they are frequently 

 found." Dr. Harlan quotes from Baron Cuvier the remarkable fact 

 furnished by the late Professor B. S. Barton, of the discovery in the 

 remains of a Mastodon found in Withe county, Virginia, five and a 

 half feet below the soil, of a kind of sack supposed to be the stomach 

 of the animal, containing the identical substances which he had de- 

 voured, namely, semi-masticated small branches, grasses, leaves, &ic. 

 among which it was thought a species of brier, still common in Vir- 

 ginia, was recognizable. Cuvier remarks that he had rarely seen 

 any remains of shells or zoophytes or the bones of the great masto- 

 don, and therefore he infers that the sea had not long sojourned over 

 them. 



Dr. Harlan, thinks that there is no evidence of the existence of 

 the great mastodon, prior to the last general cataclysm, and that they 

 may have disappeared, together with the fossil elk, or moose of Ire- 

 land, since the creation of man. 



Mr. William Cooper of New York, who is also a high authority 

 on subjects of Natural History, after a very foil examination of many 

 bones of the mastodon is of the opinion, that there is but one species 

 among the great quantity of their bones found in the United States 

 which have come under his observation. 



