928 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Columbia county 

 1705 Claverack 



This is about the date of discovery of the first known 

 bones of the American mastodon. They were found near 

 the Tillage of Olaveraek, and the first account of them is 

 given in a letter from Governor Dudley to the Rev. Cotton 

 Mather D.D., dated Roxbury, July 10, 1706. 1 



In this he states that a tooth with some other bones 

 were brought to him by two " honest " Dutchmen of 

 Albany who said that they were " taken up under the 

 Bank of the Hudson's River some miles below the city of 

 Albany about fifty leagues from the sea." Governor 

 Dudley adds that a tooth of the same character was, the 

 year before, " presented to My Lord Cornbury." Lord 

 Cornbury addressed to the secretary of the Royal Society, 

 a letter dated New York 1713. 2 This is as follows : 



I did, by the Virginia fleet, send you a Tooth, which, 

 on the outside of the box, was called the tooth of a Giant, 

 and I desired it might be given to Gresham College: I 

 now send you some of his bones, and I am able to give 

 you this account. The tooth I sent was found near the 

 side of Hudson's river, rolled down from a high bank by 

 a Dutch country-fellow, about twenty miles on this side of 

 Albany, and sold to one Van Bruggen for a gill of rum. 

 Van Bruggen being a member of the Assembly, and com- 

 ing down to New York to the Assembly, brought the 

 tooth with him, and shew'd it to several people here. I 

 was told of it, and sent for it to see, and ask'd if he would 

 dispose of it; he said it was worth nothing, but if I had 

 a mind to it, 'twas at my service. Thus I came by it. 

 Some said 'twas the tooth of a human creature; others, 

 of some beast or fish; but nobody could tell what beast or 

 fish had such a tooth. I was of opinion it was the tooth 

 of a giant, which gave me the curiosity to enquire farther. 

 One Mr Abeel, Recorder of Albany, was then in town, 

 so I directed him to send some person to dig near the 

 place where the tooth was found; which he did, and that 

 you may see the account he gives me of it, I send you the 

 original letter he sent me; you must allow for the bad 



1 In Eager' s History of Orange County; also quoted in Warren's Mastodon 

 giganteus, p. 198. 



2 See C. R. Weld. History of the Royal Society. 1848. 1:421. 



