93 



THE CAMBRIDGE MASTODON. 



In the course of our description, reference has frequently been made to the 

 Cambridge Mastodon. This noble skeleton, at the time of its discovery 

 the most perfect, was obtained for the University by the. liberal donations 

 of gentlemen in Boston and vicinity, and set up in the mineralogical 

 cabinet. 



The State of Xew Jersey is rich in fossil remains. Among these are 

 various bones of the Mastodon, a multitude of fossil testacea, and the bones 

 of the Mososaurus.* 



In the autumn of 1844, as well as that of 1845, as before mentioned, Discovery. 

 there was such a deficiency of rain in the Middle States, that many marshes 

 and lacustrine deposits were dried, and thus afforded an opportunity of 

 obtaining quantities of decomposed animal and vegetable matter for agri- 

 cultural purposes. Among those who were occupied in this manner was a 

 farmer, Mr. Ayers, of Hackettstown, Warren County, about twenty miles 

 from Newark, and near the origin of the Mastodon Stream, the Waalkil. 

 In a drained pond-hole, forty yards in length by twenty-five wide, an 



* The distinguished geologist, Professor Henry D. Rogers, has labored successfully in this field ; 

 and to him I am indebted for one of the vertebrae of the Mososaurus, in a silicified state. 



