10 THE MASTODON. 



The tusks were four in number, and those of the upper 

 jaw curved upwards, and sometimes attained the length 

 of twelve or thirteen feet. Besides the regular intermax- 

 illary tusks, in one species at least, there are two very- 

 small ones which make their appearance at the very ear- 

 liest period of life, but shortly give way for the permanent 

 ones. As has been already stated, two tusks make their 

 appearance in the lower jaw, only one of which became 

 developed, that in the adult male ; both were early shed 

 in the female. These tusks form one of the distinctive 

 characteristics which separate the mastodon from the ele- 

 phant. The structure of the teeth also constitutes a very 

 important part in the anatomical description, and widely 

 differs from those of the rest of the elephant family. While 

 there are certain varieties of the mastodon which are easily 

 separated into distinct groups, yet there are others not so 

 well marked, belonging to the transitional rank between 

 the mastodon type and the elephant type. 



II. HISTORY. 



The first authentic history of the discovery of the re- 

 mains of the mastodon dates back to the year 1613. Near 

 the castle of Chaumont, in Dauphine (France), some bones 

 were found in a sand-pit, which were purchased by a sur- 

 geon named Mazuya, who pretended that he had discov- 

 ered them in a brick tomb, thirty feet long by fifteen 

 broad, inscribed with the name of Teutobocchus Bex, a chief 

 of the Cimbri (Northern Germany), who was defeated by 

 the Roman commander, Caius Marius, 102 B. C. He also 

 claimed to have found in the same tomb fifty medals bear- 

 ing the effigy of Marius. Mazuya exhibited this skeleton 

 in the cities of France and Germany. Biolan, an anat- 

 omist, after having examined the bones of the pretended 

 king, pronounced them to be those of an elephant. This 

 gave rise to an animated controversy in which numerous 



