THE MASTODON. 529 
The Mastodons in most respects closely resemble the true elephants, from 
which they are distinguished by their dentition. As in the elephants the upper 
incisors grow from prominent pulps and constitute long tusks; but in the majority 
of cases the Mastodons also possess lower incisors as well. The lower incisors, 
however, though tusk-shaped, did not develop themselves to any extent, and often 
disappeared in adult life. A more important distinction between the elephants 
and Mastodons is, that the molar teeth of the latter are not only more numerous, 
but have the peculiarity that their crowns are furnished with nipple-shaped emi- 
nences or tubercles placed in pairs, (its name derived from the Greek JVasios, a 
teat, and odous a tooth). 
In the Mastodon the dentine or principal substance of the tooth is covered 
by a very thick coat of dense and brittle enamel, a thin coat of cement is contin- 
ued from the fangs upon the crowa of the tooth, but this third substance does not 
fill up the inter-spaces of the division of the crown as in the elephant’s grinder. 
In the AL, ohivoticus (MM. americanus) the lower jaw has two tusks in the 
young of both sexes; these are soon shed in the female, but one of them is 
retained in the male. The upper tusks are long and retained in both sexes. The 
Mastodons were elephants with the grinding teeth less complex in structure and 
adapted for bruising tender and coarser vegetable substances, roots and aquatic 
plants. The large eminences of the grinding teeth, the unusual thickness of the 
enamel and almost entire absence of the softer cement from the grinding surface 
of the crown would indicate their adaptation to crushing harder and coarser sub- 
stances than the more complex but weaker teeth of the elephant. Their limbs 
are proportionally shorter than the elephant though constructed on the same type, 
but the leg bones are stronger, cranium flatter, and from the smaller development 
of the frontal air cells, it presents a less intelligent character. 
Other Mastodon remains discovered in Asia present the transitional charac- 
ter of the teeth of the elephant and the Mastodon. For the Mastodons with 
three-ridged penultimate and ante-penultimate grinders, Dr. Falconer proposed 
the name 77zlophodon. The species Mastodon americanus of Cuvier was described in 
1798; M. ohioticus in 1799; AM. giganteus in 1817. Both the latter are the J. 
americanus Cuvier, which is the proper name by priority. 
The Mastodon first appeared in the Miocene, being there represented by four 
European and three Indian species; occurring also in the Pliocene and Post- 
Pliocene. 
The Mastodon bones first found were supposed to be the same as the Siberian 
Mammoth. He was called the ‘‘Big Buffalo” by the Indians, and they had 
traditions of his former life here. In Jefferson’s Notes on Virginia a Delaware — 
chief informed the Governor of Virginia ‘‘ that in ancient times a herd of these 
tremendous animals came to the Big-Bone licks, and began a universal destruc- 
tion of the bear, deer, elks, buffaloes and other animals which had been created 
for the use of the Indians; that the Great Man above, looking down and seeing 
this, was so enraged that he seized his lightning, descended on the earth, seated 
