MASTODON TAPIROIDES IN RUSSIA. G5 



APPENDIX TO MEMOIR ON MASTODON. 



I. — Note on J. F. Brandt's Memoir on the Skeleton of a Mastodon 



DISCOVERED NEAR NlKOLAJEW (NlCOLAIEFF), IN SOUTHERN RUSSIA. 



By Dr. Falconer and Mr. T. Rupert Jones. 1 



Early in 1860 the Imperial Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg 

 received a notice, with drawings and photograph, of the remains of a 

 large Elephantine animal found in the South of Russia, twelve werst 

 from Nikolajew, to which attention was first called by the army-sur- 

 geon, M. Wassilijew. From an examination of the photograph, and 

 from information (from Admiral Butakow) as to the shape of the 

 lower jaw, M. Brandt suggested that the remains may have belonged 

 to Mastodon angustidens. ' The portions of the skeletons of Masto- 

 dons hitherto found, so far as I know,' says M. Brandt, ' in the 

 Middle and Upper Tertiaries of the various countries of Europe, such 

 as Germany, and here and there in Russia, have been only isolated 

 parts, principally molars, and more rarely fragments of the lower jaw. 

 The Museum of the Academy possesses the half of a lower jaw, fur- 

 nished with two molars, dug up in the Chersonese Government, near 

 the town of Ananjew. Nordmann and Eichwald have described some 

 molars of Mastodon likewise found in Southern Russia.' M. Brandt 

 recommended the acquisition of the Nikolajew specimen for the 

 Academy. 



In June 1860 M. Brandt sent from Nikolajew to the Academy a 

 report of the proceedings of the expedition to that place, entrusted 

 by the Academy to his management. After giving an account of 

 the collections inspected at Moscow, Charkow, and elsewhere, he 

 describes the arrival of himself and scientific companions at Nikolajew 

 on the 31st May, the welcome they received from Admiral von 

 Glasenap, and the cordial cooperation of that gentleman and others in 

 the examination of the bones and in the search for other remains. 



The skeleton of the Mastodon had been found in a ravine (formed 

 by spring-floods) about a werst distant from the village of Waskress- 

 ensk (or Gorochowo), and disappearing on the Ingul, at the place 

 where this river (an affluent of the Bug) makes a bend. The ravine 

 bears at first, from its head, from S. to N., then it takes a NW. direc- 

 tion. In the upper part of the ravine the rocky strata are denuded, 

 and subsequently they disappear with the change of direction, and allu- 

 vial soil only is seen at the entrance of the gully. 



As early as 1854, after a very rainy season, several large bones had 

 been found here ; subsequently the nearly perfect skeleton of the 

 Mastodon was found near the upper part of the ravine, at a depth of 3 

 ' sajen ' and 2 ' arschin ; ' the arrangement of the strata being, in 

 descending order, as follows : — 



1. Black humus; 9 inches (English). 



1 Reprinted from the 'Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society' for May, 

 1862. 



VOL. II. F 



