Mastodojst Remains in 'Nova Scotia. — By Harry Piers, 

 Curator of the Provincial Museum, Halifax. 



Read 13th Maj-, 1912. 



While recently engaged in preparing suitable labels for 

 specimens of a femur and molar tooth of the American Mas- 

 todon from Cape Breton island, which are preserved in the 

 Provincial Museum at Halifax, I was led to make inquiries to 

 ascertain as far as possible just what was known regarding 

 their history, either in literature or as tradition among the 

 old jDeople of the localities where they were discovered. It 

 was found that little was on record, and in fact the ]Drecise 

 spots where they were unearthed were not at all definitely 

 kno^\m, and other points required clearing up. 



In order to facilitate future reference, I now venture to 

 present a concise systematized account of all that is known of 

 the only authentic existing remains of the ISTova Scotian 

 Mastodon, including interesting particulars from old persons 

 who still remember well the original discovery. The time for 

 rescuing any unrecorded facts was almost gone, and in a few 

 years not a man would have remained who could have person- 

 ally recalled any of the circumstances of one of the most inter- 

 esting palseontological finds ever made in this province. 



At the outset it may be observed that the paper does not 

 intend to deal with the question of geological age, but it may 

 be stated that there seems no reason to question the generally 

 accepted conclusions on this point. 



The Mastodons, of which about thirty sjDecies have been 

 described, belong to the suborder Proboscidea (the Elephants), 

 primative forms of which lived in Egypt in the Middle Eocene, 

 showing that Africa was the point of dispersion of the animals 

 of this suborder. Mastodons made their appearance in Europe 

 at least as early as the middle of the Miocene epoch and also 



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