FOOD AND HAIR. 145 



served. On examination by the microscope, the fragments present the 

 aspect of the terminal branches of coniferous trees. The observations of 

 Dr. Carpenter, Professor Gray, and other gentlemen, support this opinion, 

 so far as relates to the Mastodon food found at Newburgh in the great 

 skeleton. The same is true, of that found in Warren County, New Jersey, 

 with the Cambridge Mastodon, in which also the supposed food appeared 

 to be arranged in the form of intestinal convolutions. 



In a letter to the author, Professor Gray gives the following account of 

 the portion of substance examined by him : — 



" As to the sticks found in the stomach of the Mastodon, I stated to Professor 



Gray's 



the Academy that an examination with the microscope showed, from the opinion. 



structure of the woody fibre, that they were boughs of pine or spruce of 



some sort, and that they minutely agreed with the wood of hemlock spruce ; 



so that this is very probably the species they belonged to, but -there is no 



certainty of it." And in a subsequent letter he says : — 



" The observations made with the microscope on the material supposed 



to have been in the stomach of your great Mastodon, showed that the woody 



matter consisted of twigs of some coniferous tree or shrub, and probably 



soine kind of spruce or fir." 



AVhen in London in the summer of 1851, I submitted portions of the Dr. carpen- 

 ter's 

 undigested and partially digested food to Dr. Carpenter, without informing opinion. 



him whether any opinion had been already expressed in regard to them, so 



that he was entirely ignorant of the result of Professor Gray's examination, 



or that they had been examined by any other person. The following is his 



reply: — 



" Although I have not had time to make as full an examination as I 



could have wished into the nature of your Mastodon's food, yet I think that 



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