Remains of Megatherium, Mastodon, fyc. 295 



county, about fifteen miles west of this village, in latitude about* 

 39° 27' N. and longitude from Washington about 8° W. 



I am not aware, that any remains of the Megatherium have 

 before been discovered in this country north of Georgia and Vir- 

 ginia.! The tooth was found in the gravelly bank of Salt Creek, 

 a tributary of Whitewater River, which flows into the Great Mi- 

 ami River near its junction with the Ohio. It was uncovered by 

 a freshet, which had washed away the alluvial bank so as to ex- 

 pose the tooth to view. 



Dimensions. — Length, 13 inches; greatest depth, 6 inches; 

 width of grinding surface, 3^ inches ; length of grinding surface, 

 6 inches ; width at the bottom of socket, 3 inches. 



Its weight is now eleven pounds and four ounces; when first 

 found, and previous to being dried, it weighed fourteen pounds. 

 Seven inches of the face or crown of the tooth, had not grown or 

 protruded beyond the gum or jaw, so that but six inches had, at 

 the death of the animal, ever been used in mastication. Wheth- 

 er the remaining seven inches would have grown longer, or 

 whether this tooth belonged to the front or the back part of the 

 jaw and was naturally imperfect in this respect, I am unable to 

 determine. From front to rear, it has considerable lateral curva- 

 ture, diverging at the centre, one inch from a right line. 



The " crusta petrosa" still possesses considerable hardness, but 

 in many places has scaled off. Those " wedges" as Dr. Buckland 

 calls them, which had not appeared above the jaw, upon the out- 

 side of the tooth, have much the appearance of ribs in a skeleton, 

 not being so thickly covered with the "crusta" as the rest of the 

 tooth. The lower ends of the " wedges" or fangs stand separate 

 from each other about half an inch, and form transverse rows of 

 rounded flattish points or partitions finished off with ivory, and 

 exceedingly smooth and highly polished, except those which 

 have not grown beyond the jaw, these being hollow at the ends 

 and bringing to view the enamel of the (! wedge." The tooth is 

 not so deep at the ends as in the middle, the ends of the roots 

 forming nearly a segment of a circle. The parts of those " wedg- 

 es" which had not finished their growth, present nearly sharp 

 points of enamel, each wedge branching and forming three sev- 



* Not accurately ascertained, but estimated by the maps and the distance from 

 Cincinnati. 



i The Bridgewater Treatise and Hitchcock's Geology are the only authorities at 

 hand. 



