ON THE BONES OF THE MASTODON'. 331 



Nay more, in the letter he has been kind enough to address to me on 

 this subject, he cites two witnesses in order to prove that some of the 

 fleshy parts, easily distinguishable, had from time to time been 

 exhumed, which, considering the warmth of the climate, is a much 

 more astonishing discovery than that of the mammoths or real fossil 

 elephants and rhinoceroses of the north of Siberia. The savages, who 

 had seen five skeletons of them in 1762, reported that one of them had 

 a " long nose, beneath which was its mouth," and Mr. Barton would 

 thence infer that this long nose could be nothing else but a trunk. 



Kalm, while speaking of a large skeleton, which according to the 

 ideas of his time he believed to be that of an elephant, discovered by 

 the Indians in a marsh in the country of the Illinois, says, " the form 

 of the beak is still discernible, although it is half decayed." There is 

 a strong probability, as Mr. Barton supposes, that the root at least of 

 the trunk is here to be understood. 



These two facts go far to establish the probability of the opinion, 

 that the masticated plants found beside the skeleton in the county of 

 Wythe, were in fact the substances which filled the stomach of the 

 animal to which that skeleton belonged. 



Some years since a piece was exhibited at Paris, which, if suffi- 

 ciently authenticated, would be a confirmation of the others, and 

 would almost lead us to doubt the extinction of the species, viz. a hoof 

 with its five nails. The owner of this specimen declared he received 

 it from a Mexican, who told him he had bought it of some Indians 

 to the west of the Missouri, who had found it, together with a tooth, 

 in a cave. But this hoof was so fresh, it bore such evident marks of 

 having been severed from the foot by a sharp instrument, it bore such 

 a perfect resemblance to that of an elephant, that I could not but 

 suspect some deception had been practised, at least by the Mexican. 



We may easily imagine that conjecture has been busy in attempting 

 to account for the origin of these bones, and in affording explanations 

 of the causes which brought about the destruction of the animals to 

 which they belonged. 



The Chawanias Indians believe that there existed with these animals 

 men of a stature proportioned to theirs, and that they were both 

 destroyed by the thunder of the Great Spirit*. 



Those of Virginia recount that a troop of these terrible quadrupeds, 

 destroying the deer, the buffaloes, and the other animals created for 

 the use of the Indians, the Great One on high seized his thunder, and 

 annihilated them all, with the exception of the largest male ; the latter 

 presented his brows to the thunderbolts and dashed them aside as they 

 fell : but being at length wounded in the side, he fled in the direction 

 of the great lakes, where he abides at this dayf. 



These stories afford a sufficient proof that these Indians have no 

 positive ideas of the actual existence of the species in the countries 

 which they inhabit. 



Lamanon, adopting the opinion of many of his predecessors, sup- 

 posed it to be some unknown cetacea, but this arose from his having 

 observed nothing more than its teeth, and from his ignorance of the 



* Barton's Journal, p. 157. f Jefferson's Notes on Virginia. 



