48 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



some of its substance lost, weighed not less than 81 pounds, was 

 3 feet, 9^ inches long; in the middle where it was comparatively 

 flat its circumference was only 20 inches but on the lower joint 

 2 feet, 6^ inches. The tusk was 3 feet long, 4 inches in diameter 

 at the end, but it was not entire. I could see no evidence of its 

 being twisted. The molar tooth which I received as a gift, weighed 

 easily 6 pounds and the crown was armed with three wedge-shaped 

 elevated processes.^ 



The first two pieces were given to the library in Philadelphia 

 where I afterward had the opportunity of seeing them. As an 

 incident it may be observed that the officer referred to, in order to 

 fetch these three pieces from their locality a few miles from the 

 boat on the Ohio, paid one of the soldiers a slight pourboir of 1000 

 paper dollars equivalent in value to 2400 Rhenish florins. Besides 

 the molar referred to I have seen in Philadelphia in the 

 collection of Mr du Sumetiere, several others, found in other 

 parts of America. These were all quite similar and some 

 had the elevated processes of the crown particularly sharp, 

 while in others they were low. If this style of tooth only 

 were always found among the elephantlike bones discovered 

 at various separated places in America, then the assumption 

 that they belonged to an ancient race of American elephants would 

 be much strengthened. It has recently become known that the soot 

 on the Ohio is not the only one in North America where similar 

 remains of these animals are found. Teeth have been discovered 

 on the Tar river in North Carolina, near Yorktown in Pennsylvania 

 and in Ulster county in New York. Catesby mentions an elephant 

 tusk dug UD in South Carolina ; Kalm an entire skeleton in the 

 countrv of the Illinois and others have been found in South Amer- 

 ica. The largest collection of the Ohio fossil bones is in the pos- 

 session of Dr Morgan of Philadelphia. On account of the trackless 

 distance It was formerly very difficult to obtain these remains which 

 had to be brought by a long circuit down to New Orleans and then 

 up to Philadelphia by sea. Now the settlement of Kentucky affords 

 better prospect of an early and more exact knowledge of the remark- 

 able bone deposit. It would be superfluous to repeat the various 

 theories which have been advanced to explain the occurrence of 

 this accumulation of remains of so very strange an animal. Floods, 

 marvelous changes of climate, of the earth's center of gravity and 

 of Its axis, have been Invoked. The American hunters satlsfv them- 

 selves with the explanation that these were real elephants killed off 

 by a hard winter which they were not able to withstand and to sup- 

 port their opinions they point out that often an extraordinarily 



^ This molar is now in the very fine scientific collection of Privy Corn- 

 selor Schmidel of AnsDach and both in respect to weight as well as in 

 entire strnctitre entirely different from the elephant's tooth with which 

 the Privy Counselor has compared it. The molar of an elephant which 

 Mr Sparrmann has described, weighed only 45.-2 pounds. 



