BONES ON SHELL RIVER. 389 
Ellice and afterwards to England. These remains were described to me by a man 
who had seen them, and also the place whence they came. They appear to have 
been large enough to have belonged to Elephas.” 
In the summer of 1887 Mr J. B. Tyrrell, of the Geological Survey, made 
a further examination of Shell river, the results of which are published 
in the Report of the Department for 1890-91. Referring to these bones, 
he says : 
““The Indians allege that at this point (the junction of the north and east 
. branches) huge bones were found at the bottom of a landslide and were brought 
to the officer in charge at Fort Pelly, by whom they were forwarded to England. 
Hon. W. J. Christie, of Brockville, Ontario, who was in charge of Fort Pelly at the 
time, informs me that the bones were shoulder-blades, and that in 1853, some 
years after the bones were brought in, he visited the place ‘and examined the 
spot carefully where the blades were taken out of the river at low water. A land- 
slip had occurred from the bank and carried the bones into the river. I found, 
from cross-questioning my guide, that the Indians had collected the bones and 
burnt them on the bank, from superstition, and buried what would not burn. I 
examined the spot where they had buried the bones, but what remained crumbled 
to pieces when touched.’ ”’ * 
When traveling in the Northwest territories in 1873 I was informed 
that large bones, supposed to be those of elephants, had been found at 
Sand Hill lake, near the elbow of the South Saskatchewan river, and 
also on the surface of the ground on White Mud river, a small tributary 
of the Missouri on the west side of the Cypress hills,f but I have never 
been able to verify these reports. 
Discoveries OF ELEPHANT REMAINS IN OTHER PARTS OF CANADA 
Numerous discoveries of remains of both mammoths and mastodons 
have been made at various times during the past seventy years in the 
province of Ontario, but with one exception they all occurred in the 
district south of a straight line drawn west from Toronto to the outlet of 
lake Huron. The exception was the finding of the greater part of the 
skeleton of a very large mammoth in a swamp on lot 9, range VII, of 
the township of Amaranth, county of Wellington, at about 50 miles 
northwest of Toronto. A tusk found with this skeleton was reported to 
measure 8 inches in diameter and 14 feet in length. 
In Ontario the remains of the above animals have always been found 
under similar conditions and in very recent deposits. In a few instances 
they have been met with in gravel and sand. At Burlington heights, at 
} Report of the Geological Survey of Canada for 1873, pp. 73, 74. 
* Op. cit., p. 129 EB. 
