APPENDIX. 183 



in heaps in the winter, and had a very strong smell of the same kind. Exposure to the weather 

 has changed its color to the dull bluish black of swamp-earth, which it seems to be mixed with, 

 — great quantities of vegetable remains, principally of marsh plants, with scattered fragments of 

 branches of trees, &c. In this deposit the remains were found, covered from four to six feet 

 deep, except the largest, which lay near the south-east side of the basin, and were but slightly 

 covered. A few feet to the north of this lay the next in size, on its back ; and a little to the 

 north and west of this the other two, — both as if in a standing position ; and the calf was found 

 in a similar position, near the north side of the basin. From Mr. Ayers's description, the bones 

 of the largest one must have been disturbed after its death, as the tusks were found reversed 

 alongside of the neck. Between the ribs of two or three of them was a considerable quantity of 

 what Mr. Ayers describes as resembling coarse chopped straw, mixed with fragments of sticks, — 

 no doubt the contents of the stomach. 



" Not more than one-fourth of the basin has been examined. The openings in it have been 

 made at random, and in each an animal has been found, so that there is probably a number 

 more. ' The question,' says Mr. Maxwell, ' very naturally occurs, How and when did so many 

 of these huge animals become imbedded in this narrow space? — questions more easily asked 

 than answered. My first conjecture, before seeing the place, was that they had been mired in 

 attempting to reach a spring or lick ; but the small extent and shallowness of the basin, and the 

 gradual descent and character of its bottom (which, as far as has been examined, is perfectly 

 solid, and, like much of the ground around, closely paved with rolled stones of gneiss and lime- 

 stone, generally six or eight inches in diameter), all forbid such a supposition. It is possible that 

 they may have been swept there by a deluge, which, from the configuration of the surrounding 

 country, would, as it subsided, sweep through the larger depression with a current to the east, 

 and form an eddy through this one to the west. The whole depression has in form a close 

 resemblance to such as we see formed on a smaller scale in the sand along the Delaware. But, 

 on the other hand, the number found together, most of them in a standing position, would seem 

 rather to indicate that they had been overwhelmed in one of their native haunts by some sudden 

 catastrophe ; and some circumstances seem to favor the supposition that this could not have been 

 at a very remote period. This little basin receives the drainage of some fifteen acres of land, 

 and seems to have had a considerable growth of grass and marsh plants around it. Under such 

 circumstances, it would seem that the accumulation of vegetable matter indicates no very great 

 antiquity. The holes were so filled with water, that I could not ascertain whether the deposit 

 below the sand showed any thing like stratification ; but, as far as I could judge from what was 

 thrown out, its character was pretty uniform throughout, exhibiting the appearance of a marsh, 

 much frequented by animals, 'which had trampled fragments of its plants all through it. I 

 regretted very much that my knowledge was not sufficient to determine the species of the plants, 



