30 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



the mammoth it is quite likely that it belonged to a female mastodon. 

 The character of the tusk and the nature of the deposits in which 

 it was found are quite similar to those of the Mount Holly, Ver- 

 mont, mammoth 33 (E. primigenius), which was found on the 

 divide between the Champlain and Connecticut valleys, beneath 

 muck and lying on a bed of gravel at an elevation of 1415 feet. 

 One of the Mount Holly tusks had the following measurements : 

 along curve on outer surface 80 inches, greatest circumference 12 

 inches, cord from base to point 60 inches, longest perpendicular 

 from cord to inner curve 19 inches. In the Copenhagen specimen 

 the corresponding last two measurements are 50 and 13 inches re- 

 spectively. The measurements show that the Mount Holly speci- 

 men is larger than the Copenhagen, and that the proportions are 

 nearly the same. It is not known whether the curve of the Mount 

 Holly tusk is in a single plane. The Copenhagen specimen clearly 

 shows a spiral curve. 



Livingston County 



33 1825. Geneseo. In 1825, the remains of a mastodon were 

 found about one-half mile east of the court house at Geneseo in 

 a small marsh. An account of the find was published in the Liv- 

 ingston Register of August 17, 1825, and 2 years later the follow- 

 ing article was written by Jeremiah Van Rensselaer: 34 "The tusks 

 were first seen, and then the head, but these, as indeed the whole 

 skeleton, were in such a state of almost total decomposition, as to 

 defy all attempts at preservation. The skeleton lay in the direction 

 so frequently observed in the remains of this animal, South West 

 and North East. The head rested upon the lower jaw. The tusks 

 were much decayed ; their points were five feet apart, and curved 

 at least a foot from the center. They were four feet and two 

 inches in length ; the largest diameter could not be ascertained on 

 account of their decay — but it was preserved a considerable dis- 

 tance and then gradually diminished, so that at five inches from 

 the point, the diameter was three inches. The laminated structure 

 of the tusk was rendered evident by decomposition, which had in 

 a measure separated the laminae, and the whole was supposed to 

 be phosphate of lime. 



" Of the two (superior) incisors, no trace could be discovered, 

 but the eight molars were in situ. The length of the largest tooth 



83 Appendix to Thompson's Vermont, 1853, p. 15. 

 S4 Amer. Jour. Sci., 1827, 12:330-81. 



