20 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Another brief account of the tusk is given by Mitchill 20 who 

 states that the tusk was found, " at Chanango, in New York, near 

 the point where the Susquehannah passes into Pennsylvania." 

 DeKay 21 refers to a tooth found on the banks of the Susquehannah, 

 near Tioga, March, 1786, and states that the tooth was figured in 

 the Columbian Magazine. Although the date of publication of the 

 magazine is not given by DeKay, it is believed that he had refer- 

 ence to the figure in the November number of 1786 (1 :i03), where 

 figures are given of a thigh bone, a tusk and a tooth, which are 

 supposed to have been brought by Major Craig from Ohio. Con- 

 cerning this, Mitchill states, " Of this species appears to be the 

 animal, whose remains were brought by Major Craig from the 

 banks of the Ohio, in 1786. They consisted of a thigh bone, part 

 of a tusk, and a portion of the jaw with the grinders. They were 

 figured by Colonel DeBrahm, and published in the Columbian 

 Magazine, at Philadelphia, vol. 1, p. 103-107." 



19 1853. Elmira. Mastodon or mammoth. The following ac- 

 count by Maxwell relates to a tusk, " found on an island in the river 

 below Elmira, a few weeks since, and it is now here. I have re- 

 cently examined it. It is about 4 feet in length, of the crescent 

 form, perhaps 3 to 4 inches in diameter. Capt. Eastman saw it 

 yesterday, and with others who have seen it, pronounces it to be 

 ivory, and a tusk of some large animal, probably now extinct. This 

 is the third horn or tusk which has been found in the Chemung so 

 that the name is likely to be perpetual." 



Columbia County 



20 1705. Claverack. Cotton Mather, of witchcraft ill-fame, 

 has been generally credited, but incorrectly, with the authorship 

 of the earliest printed account of the discovery of mastodon 

 remains. In a letter to Doctor Woodward of England, dated 

 November 17, 17 12 and published in the Philosophical Transactions 

 of the Royal Society of London for 1714, 29:62 Mather described 

 briefly, "... bones and teeth of some large animals found lately 

 in New England " and, giving a literal interpretation of the biblical 



pt I, p. 164 (1793). See also article by George Turner in Trans. Amer. 

 Phil. Soc, 1799, 4: 514. Brief account of the tusk above described and 

 refers to publication above cited. 



20 Geology of North America, in Cuvier, Theory of the Earth, 1818, p. 3 >3, 

 New York. 



"DeKay, Nat. Hist. N. Y. Zool. pt. 1, 1842, p. 101. 



