depth. 



156 GEOLOGICAL SITUATION AND 



that he has repeatedly seen collections of these bones in position, below the 

 drift and boulder deposits. 

 Recent The newspapers of the early part of February, 1852, printed at Buffalo, 



Discovery _^ 



of Elephant K T., announced the discovery, by the laborers on the Great Western Eail- 



Remains at . 



a great road of Upper Canada, of "the tusks and jawbone of an elephant, buried 

 to a depth of sixty feet in earth and gravel." The exhumation took place 

 while they were engaged in an excavation through Burlington Heights, near 

 Hamilton, C. W: The jawbone is said to be of enormous size, and one of 

 the tusks, which is slightly decayed at one end, to measure six feet and nine 

 inches. The other tusk is perfect. 



The Elephas Primigenius, as shown in page 142, was contemporary 

 with the M. Giganteus. The remains here found of the Elephas Primi- 

 genius render it probable that those of the M. Giganteus might have had 

 a similar depth, and thus tend to confirm the belief of Mr. Foster, expressed 



» 



above, that these relics were occasionally met with below the drift. Con- 

 sidering this to be an important fact, I immediately wrote to a friend 

 in the West to obtain more exact information, and hope it may arrive early 

 enough for me to make use of it. 



Relics thus situated would have a much higher antiquity than those 

 we have had an opportunity of observing. But, while relating these facts 

 as I have received them, I do not pretend to say that the present state 

 of observation affords satisfactory evidence of the relics having been found 

 to any great extent below the drift and boulder deposits. 



The bones of the Mastodon Giganteus, in the northern parts of our 

 country, have generally been discovered in post-tertiary or alluvial forma- 

 tions, at the depth of from five to ten feet, in lacustrine deposits, in bogs, 

 in beds of shell-marl, or overlaid by these beds. The marl contains the 



Alluvial. 



