THE MASTODON. 25 



varieties may have partially subsisted on the succulent 

 roots of certain trees, but there is very strong evidence 

 that all did not do so, nor even upon the shorter grasses. 

 The mastodon of Mt. Pentelicus could not conveniently 

 have touched the earth with its trunk, owing to its long 

 symphysis and tusks, thus being forced to find its nourish- 

 ment at a certain distance from the ground. If analogy 

 alone is to be considered, it might be concluded, judging 

 from the shape of the head of several varieties, that the 

 mastodon never fed upon roots. Although their teeth 

 were adapted for crushing hard substances, and mastica- 

 ting the roots of trees, yet the hippopotamus, with teeth 

 somewhat similar, never feeds upon roots, but exclusively 

 on reeds and herbs. 



VIII. HAIR. 



Were we to judge alone from the northern region where 

 this animal has been found, and the food upon which it 

 subsisted, we would be forced to conclude that it was cov- 

 ered with hair. It is well known that the living elephant 

 is almost hairless, and yet the elephants of India which 

 live on elevated and cool districts are more hairy than 

 those of the lowlands; that the heat causes these animals 

 to be hairless, and in such districts where a covering is 

 needed it is supplied. Were it probable that the mastodon 

 lived in the northern part of the country in summer only, 

 and retreated to the south in winter, and the climate not 

 having perceptibly changed since it becdme extinct, the 

 cool nights and sudden changes in the weather would de- 

 mand that a covering of hair should be supplied. How- 

 ever, this question has not been left to conjecture, for the 

 hair has been found. Around and in the immediate vicin- 

 ity of the skeleton found at Scotchtown, Orange county, 

 New York, were locks and tufts of hair, of a dun-brown, 

 from an inch and a half to seven inches in length. In 



