MASTODONS, MAMMOTHS AND OTHER PLEISTOCENE MAMMALS 63 



the character of the animal to which the bones belonged. This 

 matter, however, is cleared on a later page (308) of the Repository 

 where we find this statement, " Since the publication of the com- 

 munications of Mr Miller and Dr Graham . . . other discoveries 

 have been made. We have been informed that the upper jaw- 

 bone is perforated to receive a tusk, like that of the elephant. . . . 

 This structure of the head leads towards a belief that the animal 

 was a species of elephant." 



The widespread interest created by the discovery of these mas- 

 todon remains in the town of Shawangunk is shown by the fact 

 that less than 6 months after their discovery, Thomas Jefferson, then 

 Vice President of the United States, but President a month later, 

 was endeavoring to obtain specimens, which he succeeded in doing. 

 The great interest taken by Jefferson in this mastodon is shown 

 in the article by Frederic N. Luther 17 on " Jefferson as a Natural- 

 ist," which states : " Thus, during those exciting weeks in Febru- 

 ary, 1 801, when Congress was vainly trying to untangle the difficul- 

 ties arising from the tie vote between Jefferson and Burr, when 

 every politician at the capital was busy with schemes and counter- 

 schemes, this man, whose political fate was balanced on a razor's 

 edge, was corresponding with Dr. Wistar in regard to some bones 

 of the mammoth which he had just procured from Shawangunk, 

 Ulster County." 



That Jefferson did actually obtain the lower and upper jaws, 

 both with teeth, of the mastodon from the town of Shawangunk, 

 is shown by the figured specimens of a plate accompanying an 

 article by John S. Patton 13 on " Thomas Jefferson's Contributions 

 to Natural History." The label, photographed with the jaws, carries 

 this inscription, " The above remains of MASTODON were col- 

 lected bv THOMAS JEFFERSON and by him presented to the 

 UNIVERSITY of VIRGINIA." 



94 1859? Ellenville (plate 12). In i860 there was received by 

 the State Museum 19 one tusk, 7 feet long, parts of a skull, jaws 

 with teeth, a pelvic and thigh bone of a mastodon found at Ellen- 

 ville. The remains indicate an old individual, and of special in- 

 terest is the worn condition of the teeth. These, as shown by the 

 plate, have been worn down through the dentine to the pulp cavities, 



"Magazine of American History, April, 1885:13:387. 



18 Natural History (Journal of the American Museum) 1919, 19: 407 

 (plate) ; see also p. 496. 



19 N. Y. State Cab. Nat. Hist., 14th Annual Rep't, 1861, p. 7, 15 and 21st 

 Annual Rep't, 1871, p. 128. 





