M A S 



(lie fliould be tned. 



opinion concerning the law by which 



whether it {liould be the ftatuteof treafons, (25 Edw. III.) 

 or a late aft of the 27th of Elizabeth, which had been 

 made for this fpecial occafion. However, the laft opinion 

 prevailed. At the clofe, add— Chalmers's Life of Mary, 

 Queen of Scots, vol. i. 410. 18 18. 



Mary, St. col. 2, 1.8, r. 12,794; 1. 9, 6000; 1. 13, 

 add — in the county of Camden, which fee. 



MARYLAND. Add— See United States. 

 MARYPORT, col. 2, 1.5 and 6, r. 1811— 322— 



MASHAM, 1. 7, r. 1811— 213— 1014. 

 MASOLES, the name of a militia in Croatia, which is 

 bound to march to the frontiers whenever there appears the 

 leaft. fymptom of hoftile difpofition on the part of the 

 Turks. The private foldiers have lands allotted to them, 

 which they cultivate for their own ufe, but receive no 

 pav from the public. The officers are paid. 

 MASON, 1. 7, r. 1077. 



MASSACHUSETTS. Add— See United States. 

 MASTODON, in Natural HtJIory, a large quadruped, 

 whofe bones are found in a foffil ftate. It was for a long 

 time confounded by naturalifts with the mammoth or foflil 

 elephant. (See Mammoth, .(^r/^i?«^a.) Cuvier has afcer- 

 tained, that the maftodon is not only a diftinft animal from 

 the mammoth and the living fpecies of elephants, but that 

 it muft be clafTed as a new genus. Five fpecies of this 

 genus have been at prcfent difcovered. 



The great majlodon, or the animal of the Ohio, the bones 

 of which have been found in the greateft abundance near 

 the Ohio river, in the province of Kentucky, in North 

 America, bears a confiderable degree of refemblance to the 

 elephant in its tufics and general ofteolog)', the form of the 

 grinders excepted. It had probably a trunk, but this part 

 being more perilhable than the bones has not been difcover- 

 ed. Cuvier concludes from its general ftrufture, that it 

 could not have fed itfelf without the aid of a trunk. Its 

 height did not furpafs that of the largefl. elephant, but its 

 body was longer, and its members were fomewhat thicker ; 

 its belly was lefs extended than that of the elephant. Not- 

 vTithftanding the general refemblance, the ftrufture of the 

 grinders is fo different, as to entitle us to clafs it as a dif- 

 ferent genus. It fed itfelf nearly in the fame way as the 

 hippopotamus and the wild boar, on the roots and pulpy 

 parts of vegetables ; and this kind of food would naturally 

 lead it to moift and marfhy ground ; but it was not made for 

 fwimming, or living under water, like the hippopotamus, 

 but was really a land animal. Its bones are more common 

 ia North America than elfewhere, and are more frefh and 

 better preferved than any other known foffil bones. Yet 

 there is not the leaft reafon to believe, according to Cuvier, 

 that there are any living maftodons either in America or elfe- 

 where. The moft celebrated place where the remains of 

 the maftodon occur is called Big-hone Lick, on the fouth- 

 etft of the Ohio, five miles from the river, and thirty-lix 

 miles below the entrance of the Kentucky river, and nearly 

 oppofite the great Miami. The place where they occur 

 is a fait marfh furrounded by hills. The bottom of the 

 raarth is a black and foetid mud. The bones are found in 

 the mud and on the borders of the marih at about four feet 

 below the furface, but they occur alfo in various parts of 

 North America in marfhy fituations. In 1805, many bones 

 of thefe animals were found in the county of Wythe, in 

 Virginia, about five feet under the earth, upon a bed of 

 lime-ftone. One of the teeth weighed feventeen pounds. 

 But what renders this difcovery the more remarkable is, 

 that a mafs of half-ground branches, roots, and leaves, 



MAS 



inclofed in a kind of fack, fuppofed to be the ftomacfv 

 was found in the midft of thefe bones, fo as to leave no 

 doubt that thefe were fubftances that the animal had de- 

 voured. Among the vegetable matter in this fack were 

 diftinguiftied the remains of fome plants known in Vir- 

 ginia. The bones of the great maftodon may be faid to 

 be common in North America ; two nearly entire flcelc- 

 tons were coUefted by Mr. Peale ; one of the brgeft is pre- 

 ferved in the Mufeum of Natural Hiftory at Pliiladelphia, 

 the fmaller was exhibited in London a few years lince. 

 Thefe bones are fcarce in other parts of the world ; but 

 wherever they have been found, it is at no great depth 

 under the foil, and yet they are but Httle decompofed. Thcv 

 are not rounded by attrition, and offer proofs that they have 

 not been removed from the places where the animals died. 

 The fkeletons found near the river called the great Ofages 

 were nearly in a vertical pofition, as if the animals had fimply 

 funk into the mud and been buried there. According to a 

 letter from Mr. Smith Barton, profeifor at the univerfity of 

 Pennfylvania, to M. Cuvier, " An intelligent traveller had 

 feen near that river thoufands of thefe bones, and had col- 

 lefted feventeen tufl<s, fome of which were fix feet in length, 

 and a foot in diameter ; but the greater part of thefe bonet. 

 was much decompofed." Mr. Barton fent a grinder to 

 M. Cuvier, fo that no doubt can be entertained that the 

 bones belonged to the maftodon. No remains of marine 

 ftiells have been difcovered with the bones of the maftodon, 

 as is the cafe with thofe of the mammoth. Mr. Barton 

 thinks, that the fait water of the marfties where they are 

 found has contributed to the prefervation of the bones. 

 He ftates alfo two inftances which appear to prove that 

 from time to time the foft part or flefti of thefe animals has 

 been dug up ; a circumftance which, from the heat of the 

 chmate, is much more aftonlftiing than what is ftated of 

 the fleili of the mammoth and rhinoceros being found in 

 Siberia. (See Mammoth.) The Indians, who difcovered 

 five flveletons in 1762, relate, that one of the heads had a 

 long nofe above the mouth ; Mr. Barton iuppofes that this 

 was in faft the trunk. Kalm, in fpeaking of a great (kele- 

 ton difcovered by the favages in a marfti in the Illinois 

 country, fays, that the form of its beak was ftill difcoverable, 

 though half decompofed ; it is probable that this was the root 

 of the trunk. 



Some doubts exift whether the maftodon be really an 

 extlnft genus, and whether it may not be found living weft 

 of the Miflburi. The Indians of Virginia, according to 

 Mr. Jefferfon, fay, that a troop of thefe formidable beafts 

 deftroyed the deer, buffaloes, and other animals created for 

 their ufe ; when the great man above- deftroyed them 

 all with his thunder, except the largeft male, which pre- 

 fenting its head to the thunder-bolts threw them oft' as 

 they fell, but being at la(t wounded in the fide, it fled to- 

 wards the lakes, where it lives to this day. 



The fkeleton of the great maftodon exhibited in England 

 was near eleven feet high. From the fize of detached bones, 

 Cuvier conjeftures that the animal never exceeded twelve 

 French feet, but its body was much longer in proportion 

 than that of the elephant. 



The form of the crown of the molares or grinders is nearly 

 reftangular. The fubftance of the teeth is of two kinds only, 

 the inner or oflcous part, and the outer or enamel, which is 

 very thick, and has no kind of cement or cortical. This 

 very important difference joined with the form brings this 

 animal nearer to the hippopotamus and the pig, than to the 

 purely herbaceous animals like the elephant. 



The crown of the grinders is divided by deep open fur- 

 rows into a certain number of tranfverfal ridges, and thefe 



ridges 



