ON THE BONES OF THE MASTODON. 325 



the surface. Several of the most important bones were M'anting, 

 such as the lower jaw, &c. &c. 



With a view to obtain these, Mr. Peale proceeded to a spot on the 

 borders of a small marsh, where some ribs had been found a few years 

 previous. In this place he continued his excavations for fifteen dayS;, 

 and collected several different species, but not one of those he was 

 peculiarly anxious to obtain. 



Despairing of success, he was on the point of withdrav/ing from the 

 place, when on passing the Wallkill, he met a farmer v/ho had found 

 some bones three years previous, and Vt^ho led him to the spot where 

 he had ma.de the discovery. This was also a marsh, twenty miles to 

 the west of the river Hudson. 



Here he commenced his operations anews and after many days of inces- 

 sant toil he succeeded in exhuming a lower jaw in a state of perfect 

 preservation, accompanied by several other main bones. Bearing 

 homewards in a species of triumph the precious fruits of this toilsome 

 campaign of three months' duration, he formed two skeletons, supplj^- 

 ing the place of the bones that were wanting in the one, by well 

 executed casts of those he had belonging to the other ; and of such as 

 were wanting on one side of the same subject, by casts of such as 

 were perfect on the other. 



The completion of this task fully justifies me in asserting, that the 

 osteology of this great animal is fully ascertained, with the single ex- 

 ception of the upper part of the skull. 



Tiie most perfect of these two skeletons has been placed in Mr. 

 Peale's Museum at Philadelphia. The other was transported to London 

 by his son Mr. Rembrandt Peale, and exhibited to the public. He 

 published a description of it, and had the kindness to send me a copy, 

 which has enabled me to give the foregoing details relative to his 

 father's labours. I shall take another opportunity further on, of turn- 

 ing it to greater account*. 



Notices either of the skeleton or of these two pamphlets have been 

 published in the English, French, and German Journalsf, and it was 

 this skeleton which formed the subject of the article inserted by M. 

 Domeyer in the fourth volume of the New Essays of the Society of 

 Naturalists at Berlin. 



Add to this, that Mr. A. C. Bonn, a young man of great promise, 

 whom his father, a celebrated professor of Amsterdam, had very soon 

 after the misfortune to lose, published in 1810 a detailed dissertation, 

 accompanied by a very handsome engraving of Mr. Peale's skeleton, 

 from a drawing executed at Philadelphia by Rembrandt PealeJ. 



To materials so numerous and complete, I have had the good fortune 

 to be able to add some that are peculiarly my own. 



* Account of the Skeleton of the Mammotli, &c. London, 1802, in 4to. An His- 

 torical Disquisition on the Mammoth, ib. 1803. 



t See the Universal Literary Gazette of Halle, April, 1804, No. Ill, p. 82, and 

 divers numbers of M. Voigt's Magazine de Physique. See also in the Journal de 

 Physique, a notice from M. Valentine. 



+ Verhandeling over de Mastodonte of Mammoth, van den Ohio, door A. C. 

 Bonn, in 8vo. 



VOL. I. F F 



