FOURTH REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR ICpJ 47 



heavy tread of the buffalo herds which gather there, with help of 

 wind and weather, have uncovered these bone heaps which are 

 buried only a little way beneath the surface. The mass of bones 

 is said to be very considerable ; to judge only from what lies 

 bare or projects from the surface, some estimate that there must 

 be the ribs of at least 12-15 animals. How many more yet may 

 not be buried under the earth? It was perhaps a numerous herd of 

 beasts that here found their common grave. As to the former 

 owners of these bones, the native Americans have just as little 

 knowledge as the opinions of the most learned students of nature 

 have imparted. On account of the immense size of the bones and 

 of the elephantlike tusks found among them the natural inference 

 has arisen that they are remains of elephants formerly native in 

 this part of the world or by accident brought here and destroyed, 

 and one is all the more justified in the opinion, which has in itself 

 nothing contradictory, as in so many other regions similar elephant 

 bones have been discovered wdiere the race of elephants is as little 

 native as in America. 



By exact comparison between these bones from the Ohio and 

 other bones and teeth from living elephants, certain variations have 

 been marked which raise new doubts. Particularly it has been 

 found that the thigh bones on the Ohio are thicker and stouter than 

 those of the well known elephants; that the tusks are often some- 

 what twisted and especially that the crowns of the molar teeth are 

 furnished with wedge-shaped elevations which the present elephant 

 does not possess. For these, and especially the last reason, the 

 learned Dr Hunter^ believes himself justified in assuming that these 

 American bones and teeth must have belonged to a flesh-eating 

 animal larger than the known elephant. From their relations to 

 the bones found in Siberia, Norway and other northern lands of 

 the old world, Raspe seeks to make it appear probable that they 

 are the remains of a great animal (elephant or not) which was of 

 a special species and originallv was adapted to colder regions, the 

 whole race of which has from unknown causes now become 

 extinct.^ 



With this view Daubenton and other savants agree and Air Pen- 

 nant believes that this still undetermined animal may yet be en- 

 countered alive somewhere in the interior unknown regions of 

 America, and calls it therefore in his synopsis, the American ele- 

 phant. If now, remains of the hippopotamus have not to some 

 extent on the Ohio been mixed with those of the elephant and hence 

 given rise to errors, this idea needs further elucidation. 



In Pittsburg J saw in the possession of an artillery ofiicer a thigh 

 bone, a molar and a tusk which he had himself brought from that 

 region. The thigh bone, though quite dry and here and there with 



'Pliilos. Trans. 1768. v. LVITT. 



'' Philos. Trans. 1769. v. LTX. Dissertatio cpi^tnla'is (k' Ossihr^ 

 & Dentihns Elepbantum. ah'arnmciue T'clh'an m. in America boreali 

 etc. obviis, quae indigenarum belluarum esse ostenditur. /. C. Raspk 



