Z HISTORICAL SKETCH. 



which excited his curiosity so much, that he sent some of them to Paris, 

 where they were subjected to the examination of scientific men. After 

 him wrote Guettard in 1752, Gauthier, Daubenton in 1762, Buffon in 1765, 

 Collinson in 1767, W. Hunter in 1768, P. Camper, Jefferson, Blumenbach, 

 Michaelis, Autenrieth, G. Cuvier, Humboldt, A. Camper, E. Peale, Wistar, 

 Bonn, Domeier, Mitchell, Darwin, Godman, Hays, Horner, De Kay, "W. 

 Cooper, Harlan, Hermann De Meyer, Kaup, Owen, Silliman, Croizet and 

 Jobert, Lartet, Laurillard, D'Orbigny, De Blainville, J. B. S. Jackson, Fal- 

 coner, and James Hall, nearly in the order of their names. 



To Cuvier we are indebted for the first elaborate account of the bones 

 of the Mastodon Giganteus. He had not, however, the advantage of a 

 skeleton; nor, in truth, did any exist until the persevering labor of Mr. 

 Peale, of Philadelphia, produced one tolerably complete from the morasses 

 of Orange County, New York, in 1801. Another, less perfect, obtained at 

 nearly the same period by the labors of the Peales, existed in the Museum 

 at Baltimore ; and, the collection being removed, it was taken apart, and 

 now belongs to me. About the year 1840, Mr. Koch obtained a skeleton 

 and a rich collection of bones from the banks of the Missouri, which were 

 mounted under the direction of Professor Owen, and have been deposited in 

 the British Museum. 



Bones, in greater or less numbers, have been found scattered over a 

 large part of the territory of the United States and Canada. A vast number 

 of these have been collected in the Salt Licks of Kentucky, in Ohio, Virginia, 

 the Carolinas, Alabama, Mississippi, the Arkansas Country; and lately 

 by the exploring expedition on the banks of the Willamet, in Oregon. It 

 is remarkable that scarcely any have been known east of the Hudson River, 

 and none east of the Connecticut. Professor Silliman, to whom we are 



