64 ScienHfic Intelligence, 



Among them we 

 about ten inches 



The same collection contained c. x„.g^ ^^,^. ^, ^.^^ ^x^^iix:aii 

 Elephant, of the coarse plated variety, from California. Some re- 

 mains of ]\Iastodon from the latter place struck me from their 

 peculiarity, and these Prof. Shepard was so kind as to loan to me 

 for examination and description. 



One of the specimens, which lies on the table, is the fraa^ment of 

 a tusk from " Dry Creek," Stanislaus Co., California. It indicates 

 a species totally different from the American Mastodon, and in 

 its peculiarities exhibits a relationship wdth the Mastodon angm- 

 tidem of the middle tertiary period of Europe. The fragment is 

 six inches in length, is slightly curved in two directions, and in 

 transverse section is ovate with the anterior pole acute. Taepulp 

 cavity, opening half the diameter at the broken base of the speci- 

 men, extends about half its length to the end. The convex side 

 of the tusk possesses, as in Mastodon angustidens, a broad hand 

 of enamel, which reaches from the acute edge more than two- 

 thirds the depth of the surface. The enamel is somewhat rugose 

 and is two-thirds of a line thick. At one spot, toward the smaller 

 end of the fragment, it has bee ' ' ^ 



extent of about an inch and ; 



specimen, from the acute edge, has been worn off to an extent 

 about equal to two-fifths of the surface. The broken ends of tin 

 fragment exhibit very conspicuously the beautiful arrangement o 

 '^- ".ssating curved lines so characteristic of the ivory in the tusfc 



rthc 



'T^ 



s 22 lines, the tran 

 1 of the tusk appears t 



can Mastodon, nor is it pn.hahle that it In-lonixed to tlie pliocene 

 Mastodon mirijicus. May it i)rol.ab!y pertain to tlie hardly 

 known Mastodon ohscurus ? In the [uvsent uncertainty I voiild 

 look on the specimen as characteristic of a peculiar species allied 

 to the M. angustidens of Europe, For tlie name of the species 1 

 would propose that of Mastodon Shepardi, in honor of Prof. C l- 

 Shepard, whose name has so long been identified with the interests 

 of natural history. 



The second specimen, exhibited to the members, consists of a 

 fragment of a lower jaw containing the last molar tooth, and was 

 discovered in Contra Costa county, California. No information 

 in regard to the age of the deposit, or the character of the loca i|y 

 m which the fossil was found, accompanies it. The bone is irwj|^'^' 

 and measures, below the position of the tooth, five and a^ n=» 

 inches in depth. Attached to the fossil there is a portion of so" 

 "-"" rock, part of the matrix in which it has been imbedded 

 tooth is perfect and well preserved. It has the same general 

 form and constitution as the corresponding tooth of the Amencan 



15: 



