MASTODONS, MAMMOTHS AND OTHER PLEISTOCENE MAMMALS 3'I 



was six and a quarter inches ; of the smallest three and a half ; the 

 crown of the tooth was two and a half ; and the breadth of the 

 enamel from one-eighth to three-eighths of an inch, as was rendered 

 visible by wearing away of the surface. The roots were all broken 

 and decayed. The animal could not have been old, as eight molar 

 teeth were found; old animals have only one molar on either side 

 of each jaw. 



" The pelvis was twenty two inches in its transverse diameter, 

 between the acetabula at the inferior opening. The epiphyses of the 

 large bones, and the patellae were found nearly perfect, not having 

 suffered from decay." 



This find is mentioned by DeKay, 35 who states that the skeleton 

 was found resting upon a bed of fine white gravel, but as DeKay 

 refers to the Rensselaer account, which is apparently the source of 

 his information, the word marl should have been used instead of 

 gravel. 



One of the teeth of the Geneseo mastodon is figured by Hall 36 

 whose brief account is here given : 



"At Geneseo in Livingston county, several years since, a large 

 number of bones and three teeth were found in a swamp beneath a 

 deposit of muck, intermingled with a sandy calcareous marl. A 

 single tooth, in the possession of C. H. Bryan, Esq. of Geneseo, is 

 the only known remaining specimen of this collection. The figure 

 at the head of the chapter is from this fossil." 



Hall further states (p. 366), " In the case at Geneseo, where the 

 bones were said to be imbedded in gravel, it is proved to have been 

 a shell marl." 



A footnote on the same page reads; " While Mr. Lyell was in this 

 part of the country, being desirous to ascertain the truth among 

 conflicting statements, he procured an excavation to be made at the 

 spot where the bones were originally found. Some fragments of 

 bones were obtained, mixed with marl and freshwater shells, leav- 

 ing no doubt of the position of the animal, which doubtless perished 

 on the spot where these remains occur." 



Sir Charles Lyell's account of his visit to the Geneseo locality is 

 given in his "Travels in North America" (1845, J : 45) '• 



" I was desirous of knowing whether any shells accompanied the 

 bones, and whether they were recent species. Mr. Hall and I there- 



35 Nat. Hist. N. Y. Zool., pt' 1, 1842, p. 104. 



36 Nat. Hist. N. Y., Geol. pt 4, 1843, p. 364; fig. 173, p. 363: tables; no. 

 68, fig. 74. See also Amer. Jour. Agr. & Sci., 1847, 6:35, fig. 2. 



