DISCOVEKY OF THE SKELETON. 



Newburgh, in the State of New York, is situated on the banks of the 

 Hudson Eiver, at the distance of about seventy miles from the city of New 

 York, and one hundred and seventy-five miles from Boston. This place 

 seems to have been a favorite resort of the Mastodon race. The country is 

 fertile, undulating, well wooded, intersected with beautiful streams of water, 

 and containing in its valleys small lacustrine deposits, favorable to the 

 growth of such trees and shrubs as probably would afford the animal its 

 subsistence. 



In this town, and its neighborhood, Mr. Peale performed his laborious 

 search in 1801. 



The spot, where the skeleton to be described was found, is situated 

 in a small valley of three or four hundred feet in length, now destitute of 

 wood and shrubs. On the hills rising from each side are a few trees, but 

 none of great age. In the midst of this valley was a small piece of water, 

 about thirty or forty feet in diameter, when I saw it. The ground imme- 

 diately surrounding is wet and swampy, so that the cattle, as they wander 

 about, are occasionally entrapped and mired. Under this watery collection 

 lay the bones of the Mastodon, scarcely covered by the soil and a few feet 

 of water ; and there, almost on the surface of the earth, they had remained 



