60 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



are in good preservation, and seem to justify the wishes of the pro- 

 prietors to set up the entire skeleton. The teeth are in perfect 

 order. One of the tusks has arrived; it is a beautiful and perfect 

 specimen, 9 feet long." The locality is given by Mather 10 who 

 states that the bones " were found in digging the Delaware and 

 Hudson canal, in a peat bog between Red bridge and Wurtsboro in 

 Sullivan county." 



Tompkins County 



91 1871. Brookton. Mastodon remains were found in Tomp- 

 kins county in 1871 and Professor Hartt of Ithaca, writing to Pro- 

 fessor Hall under date of May 28, 1871, briefly refers to the find 

 as follows : " We have lately found mastodon remains, good teeth 

 but broken bones in a bog at Motts Corners (Brookton), Six-mile 

 creek." The printed account by Professor Hartt 11 includes the 

 following : 



At the mastodon locality the stream met with a little knob of Chemung 

 rocks which appears to have formed at one time an island, but the creek 

 afterward cut its way through the rock to a lower level on the left side 

 and the channel on the opposite side was deserted. Springs, one of which 

 is said to be salt, have kept this deserted channel wet and a bed of peat 

 lias formed which once supported some large trees. The layer of peat 

 varies from a few inches to 2 feet or more and is full of sticks, pine knots, 

 bark, etc., more or less decayed. Beneath this is a layer of variable thick- 

 ness, rarely more than a few inches, composed of clay mixed with pebbles 

 and pieces of shale. In this were found small fragments of bones and 

 teeth, the former in a very decayed condition showing that the skeleton 

 had been completely broken up and scattered. The whole rests on a bed 

 of blue arenaceous clay with large pebbles and fragments of rock of all 

 kinds, in fact, a modified drift. In most cases the bones were merely 

 scattered over the surface of this bed between it and the peat. The teeth 

 are in very good condition and not at all waterworn. The animal prob- 

 ably became mired near the spot. The skeleton, exposed to the action of 

 the elements, went to pieces, and the fragments were scattered, partly by 

 water action and partly through the agency of wild animals. 



A communication to the American Journal of Science (1871, 

 2:58) by Prof. B. G. Wilder of Cornell, relates to the Brookton 

 specimen. Wilder states : " Five teeth and many bones and frag- 

 ments of the mastodon have been discovered in a deposit of modi- 

 fied drift near Ithaca, New York, and placed in the museum of Cor- 

 nell University. Many more remains will doubtless be obtained, as 

 the teeth already indicate the existence of two or more individuals ; 

 little hope is entertained, however, of finding a perfect skeleton." 



The above specimen is also the one referred to by Professor Tarr 12 

 as having been found in a swamp in the valley bottom at Brookton. 



10 Nat. Hist. N. Y., Geol. pt 1, 1842, p. 233. 



11 Amer. Naturalist, 1871, 5 :31s. 



13 U. S. Geol. Sur. Folio 169, 1909, p. 200. Field ed. 



