224 A, Winchell on the Remains of a Mastodon in Michigan. 
It is generally supposed that the occurrence of elephantine 
remains in miry bogs indicates the mode of death of these pon- 
derous quadrupeds. It may be doubted, however, whether their 
occurrence exclusively in peat, or beneath it, is not attributable 
to the antiseptic properties of that substance. 
The bog in which the present remains were found, is perfectly 
identical with thousands of others in our State, which are 
known, from observation, to be in process of formation in the 
sites of ancient lakelets, and at a rate which argues a compara- 
tively short duration for the alluvial period of the State. In- 
was the bed of a lakelet within a comparatively short period. It 
is much more credible that the Mastodon under consideration 
was living within 500 or 1000 years, than that an interval of 
time, greater than the age of the human race, has been occupied 
in the accumulation of two or three feet of vegetable deposits, 
under circumstances which suffer the same work to be accom- 
lished, in neighboring localities, within the space of a human 
ife-time. It is more than probable that the American Indian, 
according to his,own traditions, and according to the evidences 
adduced by Dr. Koch, has listened to the thunder-waking tread 
of these monsters of the forest and the field. ; 
Other mastodon remains have been found at various points 
within the lower peninsula of Michigan, some of which are Pe- 
tersburg, Monroe county; the city of Adrian, Lenawee county; 
Utica, Macomb county ; Green Oak, Livingston county ; Fenton- 
ville, Oakland county; and Terre Coupée, Berrien county. (See 
Proc. Bos. Soc. Nat. Hist., v, 188, 146, 158.) The localities of 
he molar teeth of 
Some years ago, the caudal vertebra of a Cetacean was identified 
by Dr. Sager from the western portion of the State. ? 
he remains of the Mastodon noticed above will probably be 
secured for the Museum of the University, when an occasi0R 
may be furnished for a fuller account of the fossil mammals of 
Michigan. _ 
University of Michigan, June 16, 1864. 
