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none of these four did the back grinders appear to have cut through 

 the gum. The largest of the five had had three grinders on each 

 side in each jaw. All the grinders were of the same character, 

 having the projecting conical points which distinguish the Mastodon. 

 In one of the skulls, the tusks projected outwards and inclined up- 

 wards, while in the other two they were inclined downwards and 

 nearly parallel. This difference, and that in the number of the teeth 

 had induced Mr. Ayers to believe that the remains belonged to more 

 than one species. But Mr. Maxwell considered it to be evident that 

 the only differences are those of age and sex. The bones which he 

 measured, he supposed to be those of a female. The other two were 

 younger animals, as was evident both from the teeth and the sutures 

 of the skull, and as the skull with projecting tusks seemed to have a 

 broader and rounder outline than the others, it probably belonged to 

 a young male. 



Mr. Ayers walked with Mr. Maxwell to the spot where they were 

 dug out, and described the position in which they were discovered. 

 North-west of the Musconetcong Valley, in which Rackettstown is 

 situate, lies a range of highlands about two miles wide, rising per- 

 haps 350 feet above the valley, and separating it from the valley of 

 the Pequest. This ridge, which is of gneiss, and has, like all our 

 mountains, a general course of about north-east, is cut into sections 

 by transverse depressions, or hollows running generally about south 

 of east. Through one of these depressions, which is probably 1^0 

 feet below the general level of the. range, passes the road from 

 Hackettstown to Vienna. By looking at Gordon's Map of New 

 Jersey, a small stream is found to cross the road nearly half way to 

 Vienna. Mr. Ayers' house is about 100 yards beyond the stream, 

 and the bones were found more than a quarter of a mile beyond his 

 house in a northerly direction, and perhaps 300 yards from the road. 

 The Map does not represent the face of the country correctly. The 

 road runs along the northern side of the valley or depression, most 

 of which is occupied by a swampy meadow, through which the 

 stream flows. From the road the ground rises regularly, but pretty 

 rapidly, probably 120 feet in 200 yards, and then descends more 

 gradually 25 or 30 feet into a smaller depression, which, however, 

 does not cut through the ridge like the larger one, but descends very 

 gradually from the general level on the east, and at its western end 

 opens on the brow of the ridge by a kind of ravine. Near this western 

 end is a depression or basin deeper than the outlet, and forming in wet 

 weather a pond-hole. Mr. Ayers says, that formerly the water in it 



