54 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



deposit of mud, in some places 6 feet in depth, has to be removed before 

 exposing the gravel bottom. This deposit is continued for some distance 

 up the valley and beyond the flow line of the water, thus proving that 

 most of this deposit has been the result of vegetable growth in the open 

 air. In this last locality the boggy surface is covered with a thick carpet 

 of moss interspersed with a few trees which are able to flourish in such 

 a soil. 



The remains in question were discovered in this last-mentioned spot, 

 about 20 yards from the channel of the stream which runs into the pond, 

 and resting on the gravel, covered by about 4 feet of the muck or peat. 



The bones and a few fragments of an ivory tusk are much broken up, 

 and crumble on exposure to the air. The top of the lower jaw is very 

 distinct. Two of the pieces of bone show articulating surfaces, but their 

 exact position in the skeleton has not been determined. They appear to 

 belong to the fore leg. The five molar teeth were in excellent preserva- 

 tion, the enamel being colored black, but perfect, while the roots were 

 less complete, but nearly whole. 



According to Owen's Odontography, where the series of teeth is figured, 

 it would appear that the present molars were those of a young adult mas- 

 todon. The anterior ones are worn on every cusp, while the large posterior 

 molar is only slightly worn on two of the anterior cusps. 



From the fact that so few bones were found, it would seem that the 

 animal (as in some other localities has been supposed to be the case), was 

 not mired in the spot where the fragments were found. Neither could 

 they have been washed by floods into their position, for the Long Island 

 streams are not subject to freshets, their course being too short and the 

 soil too porous to allow the accumulation of waters overflowing their 

 banks. It is, however, probable that the creature died not far from the 

 spot where these remains were found, and that they were gradually 

 covered up by the vegetable growth of centuries. 



The Jamaica specimen is probably the one referred to by Prof. 

 D. S. Martin" when he stated that a mastodon was exhumed in 

 excavating for the Ridgewood, L. L, reservoirs. Ridgewood is west 

 of Jamaica and its reservoirs, like the one near Jamaica mentioned 

 by Brevoort, supply water to Brooklyn. 



Richmond County 

 83 1899. New Dorp. In the museum of the Staten Island In- 

 stitute of Arts and Sciences are fragments of a tooth which were 

 found in a swamp at the Moravian cemetery at New Dorp, Staten 

 Island. An account of this find was given by Dr Arthur Hollick 

 and was published in the Annals of the New York Academy of 

 Sciences, volume 14, 1901, pages 67-68. The following description 

 is from the above publication: 



The surface deposit was found to consist of a fine moss peat and a 

 coarse peat composed of all kinds of swamp vegetation, extending out to 

 the margin of the pool, while below this and forming the bottom of the 

 pool was a black organic mud, such as may be seen in almost any swamp 

 where decaying vegetation has accumulated. Below this the deposit was 

 a fine sandy silt, distinctly stratified, the layers following the general con- 

 tour of the depression, thicker towards the middle and thinning out at 



88 N. Y. Acad. Sci. Trans. 1885, 5-.15. 



