ON THE FOSSIL HONKS OF THE ELETHANT OF THE HUSSIANS. 25/ 



A very remarkable depot was discovered in October, 181G. Fre- 

 derick I. ordered it to be explored, and the bones to be collected with 

 the greatest care. It is even stated, that the visit paid to it by that 

 prince, who was so ardent in every thing that appertained to great- 

 ness, helped to bring on the disease of which he died a few days after. 

 An officer named Natter began some researches. In twenty-four 

 hours they picked up twenty-one teeth, or parts of teeth, and a great 

 quantity of bones. The king, having given directions for continuing 

 the excavations, on the second day they came upon a heap, consisting 

 of thirteen tusks, placed one beside the other, with some jaws, as if 

 they had been designedly placed together. It was after this occur- 

 rence that the king visited the spot, and ordered the whole heap to 

 be raised, with the clay that surrounded it, so as to preserve the rela- 

 tive positions of the several objects. The largest of the tusks, al- 

 though without its point or its root, was still eight feet long, and a 

 foot in diameter. They likewise found several isolated tusks, a quan- 

 tity of jawbones from two inches to a foot long; some of them were 

 still connected with the upper jaws. All these specimens were in a 

 better state of preservation than those of 1700, a circumstance which 

 may be accounted for by the depth at which they lay, and perhaps by 

 the nature of the soil. The tusks were in general very much bent. 

 In the same depot as in 1700, they found the bones of horses, stags, 

 a quantity of rhinoceros' teeth, some others, which they supposed to be 

 those of the bear, and a specimen which they believed to belong to 

 the tapir. 



The place of the discovery is called Seelberg, and is nearly six 

 hundred paces from the town of Canstadt, but on the other side of the 

 Necker. The soil is formed of a reddish clay ; the bones were found 

 from four to twenty feet deep, intermixed with fragments of quartz, 

 white gravel, and shells of different species. This statement has been 

 inserted in the Feuille du Matin of November, 1816, by Mr. Nutter, 

 as also in the Manuel des Chasseurs (Sporting Magazine) of Wiede- 

 mann, where he adds a drawing of the principal heap of tusks taken 

 by himself upon the spot. 



We find by a report of the learned naturalist, M. Kielmeyer, 

 which M. Natter has annexed to his work, that the molares were 

 formed of very delicate straight plates, as are the greater part of the 

 fossil molares. The inflection of the perfect tusks comprehends the 

 three quarters of a circle, and pursues a spiral direction on the out- 

 side*. 



All the basons of the great rivers of Germany have yielded elephants' 

 bones, as well as those places we have already mentioned ; and first, 

 to continue our catalogue of those yielded by the valleys which termi- 

 nate at the Rhine, Canstadt is not the only place in the valley of the 

 Necker, and in those valleys running in that direction, where similar 

 discoveries have been made. 



Near the small village of Berg, above Canstadt, at the outlet of the 

 little valley of the Neisenbach, where stands the town of Stuttgart, 



Archives of the Primitive World, by Ballenstedt, 1819, vol. i, pp. 31- 



