14 GEOLOGICAL MEMOHIS. 



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). 



2. A thin calcareous layer, compact, made up of shell-fragments, 

 6. inches thick, passing into — 



3. A soft grey and white limestone, of oolitic structure, with casts 

 of shells ; 5 inches thick. 



4. Soft yellowish-grey sand, here and there brownish red, with 

 Oxide of iron, harder beneath, without fossils ; 8 inches. 



5. Harder sandstone, alternating with beds coloured with oxide 

 of iron, and traversed by layers of clay of various thicknesses, passing 

 downwards into sandy clay with siliceous concretions, but no fossils ; 

 7 feet (English). 



In this bed was found the Mastodon ; and not far off, in the same 

 stratum, was found a layer of a kind of brown coal, an inch thick. 

 Under this layer a stratum of limestone was observed only a few feet 

 thick ; it contained a Cardium. Of all these beds the bottom clay and 

 limestone are the only two which are constant. The bones of the 

 Mastodon skeleton that have been saved consist chiefly of the tusks 

 and molars of the upper and lower jaws, the lower jaw, an almost 

 perfect shoulder-blade, nearly all the ribs, a great number of cervical 

 and dorsal vertebrse, and the tolerably perfect bones of a fore foot. 



The bones were in a very fragile condition, and their extrication 

 from the firm, moist, loamy earth required great caution. Careful 

 drawings were made of the relative positions of the bones on the 

 spot ; and the fragments were carefully numbered, so that it is hoped 

 they will serve to construct, in the Museum at St. Petersburg, a 

 tolerable skeleton, that in its completeness will be one among the 

 best of the preserved specimens of the ancient Mastodons. The 

 bones have already reached St. Petersburg, and have been placed in 

 their proper collocation by the Conservator Eadde. 



In November 1860 a supplemental notice, illustrated by drawings, 

 of these remains,'was read before the Academy by M. Brandt. The 

 drawings are represented by a large lithographic plate in the ' Bul- 

 letin,' and are described at pp. 507-509. AIL the bones appear more 

 or less displaced, some only slightly ; the skull was crushed, and its 

 bones nearly aU destroyed by the action of the weather. The back 

 upper molars lay apart from each other. The almost straight tusks, 

 6 feet 8 inches long, and thickest at the base, were but slightly dis- 

 placed, although their alveoli had been destroyed, and they themselves 

 l3roken into many pieces. The tusks of the well-preserved lower jaw 

 were in their natural position, in sockets in a short characteristic 

 symphysial process. The imperfect cervical vertebrse were partly 

 displaced, and, like the most of the anterior dorsal vertebrse, were 

 more or less broken or decayed. Only a few of the middle and 

 posterior dorsal vertebrse were tolerably preserved ; indeed, but a 

 small proportion of them was found in their natural position. The 



