FOSSIL MAMMALIA. 65 



Camper, in 1788, retracted his last-mentioned opinion on 

 the mastodon. From some drawings presented him by M. 

 Michaelis, he declared that he had been mistaken ; that this 

 animal had a pointed muzzle without tusks ; that it did not 

 resemble the elephant, nor could he form any opinion of its 

 true nature. But it afterwards appeared that he took that part 

 of the palate where the teeth approximate, for the anterior 

 part, and, considering the pterygoid apophyses as intermaxil- 

 lary bones, found, consequently, no place for the tusks. 



A famous discovery, made in the commencement of the pre- 

 sent century by Mr. Wilson Peale, founder of the Museum of 

 Natural History at Philadelphia, seems to have set this question 

 at rest for ever, and will require a little more detailed account. 

 In the spring of 1801 , he learned that some bones had been 

 dug up the preceding autumn, in the neighbourhood of New- 

 burgh, on the river Hudson. He repaired thither with his 

 sons, and obtained from the farmer who had dug it up a con- 

 siderable portion of a skeleton, which he sent to Philadelphia. 

 There w^as a cranium much damaged in the upper part ; the 

 lower jaw was broken, and the tusks mutilated. At the close 

 of autumn, after many weeks labour, were found, in the same 

 place, all the cervical vertebrae, many of the dorsal, two shoulder- 

 blades, two humeri, a radius and cubitus, a femur, a tibia, a 

 peroneum, a mutilated pelvis, and some small bones of the 

 feet. These were found between six arid seven feet in depth i 

 but many important bones were wanting, such as the lower- 

 jaw. Sec. To obtain them, Mr. Peale repaired to another spot, 

 eleven miles distant, where bones had been disinterred about 

 eight years before. He worked for fifteen days, collected many 

 fragments, but not those he wanted. However, on his return 

 he met a farmer, who had found some bones three years be- 

 fore, and who conducted him to the place of his discovery. 

 Here, after much labour, he was fortunate enough to find a 

 complete under jaw, and many other principal bones. With 



F 



