22 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



of Natural Historians, and the Observations of himself and others, 

 more particularly as to Matters observ'd in America, whence he 

 entitles the Work Biblia Americana. This Work Dr. Mather rec- 

 ommends to the Patronage of some generous Mecaenas, to promote 

 the publication of. As a specimen of it, he transcribes a Passage 

 out of it, being a Note on that Passage in Gen. Chap. 6. V. 4 re- 

 lating to Giants ; and confirms the Opinion of there having been in 

 the Antediluvian World, Men of very large and prodigious Statures, 

 by the Bones and Teeth of Some large Animals, found lately in 

 Albany in New England, which for some Reasons, he judges to be 

 Human; particularly a Tooth brought from the Place where it was 

 found to New York, 1705, being a very large grinder, weighing 4 

 pounds and three-quarters, with a Bone, suppos'd to be a Thigh- 

 bone, 17 Foot long. He also mentions another Tooth, broad and 

 flat like a Fore-Tooth, four fingers broad : the Bones crumble to 

 pieces in the air after they are dug up ; they were found near a 

 place call'd Claverack, about 30 miles on this side of Albany. He 

 then gives the Description of one, which he resembles to the Eye- 

 Tooth of a Man; he says it has four Prongs, or Roots, flat, and 

 something worn on the top; it was six inches high, lacking one 

 eighth, as it stood upright on its Root, and almost Thirteen Inches 

 in circumference ; it weighed two pounds four ounces Troy weight : 

 There was another near a pound heavier, found under the Bank of 

 Hudson's River, about fifty leagues from the Sea, a great way be- 

 low the Surface of the Earth, where the Ground is of a different 

 colour and Substance for seventy five Foot long, which they sup- 

 pose to be from the rotting of the Body, to which the Bones and 

 Teeth did, as he supposes, once belong. It were to be wished the 

 Writer had given an exact Figure of these Teeth and Bones." 



It may be pointed out that the tooth mentioned by Mather in the 

 above account as resembling " the Eye-Tooth of a man," came from 

 the west bank of the Hudson, the locality as given by Dudley being 

 " some miles below the city of Albany, about fifty leagues from 

 the sea." The tooth, " near a pound heavier," the specimen men- 

 tioned by Dudley as being shown at Hartford, was doubtless the 

 Claverack fore tooth, " flat and broad ... as a man's four 

 fingers." 



In 1 713, English ministers and governors stationed abroad were 

 instructed to promote the welfare of the Royal Society of London 

 by contributing specimens and by replying to any inquiries addressed 

 to them, concerning the countries to which they were delegated. As 



