FOSSIL MAMMALIA. 63 



teeth as belonging to the hippopotamus. The large femur also, 

 dug up in the same place as these teeth, was attributed both 

 by Buffon and Daubenton to the elephant. Dr. Hunter, how- 

 ever, had shown, 1767, that this part, as well as the teeth and 

 the lower jaw, exhibited a different conformation. Still, Dr. 

 Hunter fell into two errors concerning this animal. He con- 

 founded it with the mammoth of the Siberians, and supposed, 

 from the structure of its teeth, that it was carnivorous. These 

 errors were sufficiently refuted, the first by Pallas, and the 

 second by Camper. Yet the animal continued to be called 

 mammoth both by the Americans and ourselves, and carnivo^ 

 rous elephant by some naturalists, — names equally improper. 

 These misnomers occasioned infinite confusion in the accounts 

 of compilers, and determined the Baron to give the animal the 

 name of mastodon, compounded of two Greek words, signifying 

 mammillary teeth, and expressing its principal character. This 

 was the more necessary, as it is found that the mastodon was 

 not only a distinct species, but a distinct genus, comprehending 

 other species. 



It is above one hundred and twenty years since remains of 

 the mastodon were first discovered at Albany, near Hudson 

 river. They are mentioned in a letter from Dr. Mather to 

 Dr. Woodward, in the Phil. Trans, 1712. He believed them 

 to be the bones of giants, and a confirmation of the Mosaical 

 accounts of gigantic races of mankind. 



Thirty years after, a French officer named Longueil, navi- 

 gating the Ohio, discovered, on the edges of a marsh near this 

 river, some bones, cheek-teeth, and tusks. He brought back 

 to Paris a femur, the extremity of a tusk, and three cheek- 

 teeth, where they are still preserved. These were the first 

 specimens of this animal seen in Europe ; and from the place in 

 which they were found the French called the mastodon, animal 

 of the Ohio, though its bones have been found in many other 

 parts. 



Daubenton declared the tusk and femur to belong to the 



