1 882.] Geology and Paleontology 75 



ble part of the skeleton of each animal proved to be in a greater 

 or less state of decay. The remains have always been discovered 

 in marshes, ponds, or other miry places, indicating at once the 

 cause of the death of the animal and the reason of the preserva- 

 tion of the bones from decay. Spots of ground in this condition 

 are found at the summit of the glacial drift or in " old beds " of 

 rivers which have adopted a shorter route and lower level; con- 

 sequently, their date does not reach beyond the most recent 

 changes of the earth's surface. In fact, their existence was so 

 late that the only query is, says Professor Collett: Why did they 

 become extinct ? A skeleton was discovered in excavating the 

 bed of the canal a few miles north of Covington, Fountain county, 

 in wet peat. The teeth are in good preservation, and Mr. Perrin 

 Kent states that when the larger bones were cut open the marrow, 

 still preserved, was utilized by the bog-cutters to " grease " their 

 boots, and that pieces of sperm-like substance, two and a-half 

 inches to three inches in diameter (adipocere) occupied the place 

 of the kidney fat of the monster. During the past summer of 

 1880 an almost complete skeleton of a mastodon was found six 

 miles north-west from Hoopston, Iroquois county, Illinois, which 

 goes far to settle definitely that it was not only a recent animal, 

 but that it survived until the life and vegetation of to-day pre- 

 vailed. The tusks formed each a full quarter of a circle, were nine 

 feet long, twenty-two inches in circumference at the base, and in 

 their water-soaked condition weighed one hundred and seventy- 

 five pounds. The lower jaw was well preserved, with a full set of 

 magnificent teeth, and is nearly three feet long. The teeth, as 

 usual, were thickly enameled, and weighed each from four to five 

 pounds. The leg-bones, when joined at the knee, made a total 

 length of five and a-half Let, indicating that the animal was not 

 less than eleven feet high, and from fifteen to sixteen feet from 

 brow to rump. On inspecting the remains closely, a mass of 

 fibrous, bark-like material was found between the ribs, filling the 

 place of the animal's stomach. When carefully separated, it 

 proved to be a crushed mass of herbs and grasses, similar to those 

 which still grow in the vicinity. In the same bed of miry clay a 

 multitude of small fresh-water and land shells were observed and 

 collected. These were: I, Pisidium, closely resembling /'. abdi- 

 tum Haldeman; 2, Valvata tri ir/nata Sav '. 3, Valvata, resem- 

 bling V. striata; 4, Planorbis parvus Say. These mollusks pre- 

 vail all over the States of Illinois, Indiana and parts of Michigan, 

 and show conclusively that, however other conditions may differ, 

 the animal and vegetable life, and consequently climate, are the 

 same now as when this mastodon sank 111 his grave of mire and 

 clay. 



The Mesozoic of Virginia. — Professor Fontaine gives a 

 pretty full account of the geology of the Mesozoic of Virginia, 

 with explanations of its peculiar features. He " has a very large 

 •collection of fine plants many of them are new, and some 



