154 



GEOLOGICAL SITUATION AND CAUSES OF 

 PRESERVATION. 



Before entering upon this subject, we would embrace the opportunity to 

 express our admiration for the sciences of Geology and Palaeontology. Newly 

 created, they have already produced a rich supply of objects, which serve 

 to enlarge our views of natural science, and afford fresh subjects of inquiry 

 and of pleasure. 

 comparative Although bones of the Mastodon Giganteus were known at an earlier 



Antiquity 



period than those of any other species, the existing relics of the Mastodon 



of M. 



Giganteus 



and m. Angustidens generally have claim, so far as we know, to a greater geological 



Angusti- 



dens. antiquity. Teeth of the Mastodon Angustidens have been discovered in 

 France "in calcareous rock, fifty feet from the surface of the earth;" and 

 the greater part of the» bones of a skeleton . were found in the south of 

 France, "under two beds of calcareous rock, and from twelve to thirteen 

 feet of a compact mass, very destitute of fossils." In other places in various 

 parts of Europe, teeth and bones have been met with imbedded in rocks 

 of the same character, at some depth (vide De Blainville's " Geology of the 

 Mastodon," p. 326). They are usually deposited in miocene formations ; 

 but there are exceptions to this general fact. 



