1896.] Fossils and Fossilization. 909 
The Warren mastodon found at Newburgh, N. Y., in 1845, 
was embedded in a bed of shell-marl, above which rested a 
layer of red moss, over which, upon the surface, spread a 
“thickness of two feet of peat-bog.” This specimen was in a 
very perfect state of preservation, revealing almost the entire 
skeleton of M. giganteus. The Cambridge mastodon was also 
in an admirable state of completeness, though the nature of 
the enveloping matrix seemed less favorable. This specimen 
was taken out at Hackettstown, Warren Co., N. Y., in 1845. 
The character of the deposit in which it was buried was dis- 
tinctly organic, consisting of one foot of decayed leaves, six 
inches of whitish sand mixed with vegetable matter, and a 
yellow layer, resembling manure, offensively. odorous. It 
would seem a reasonable inference that this large quantity of 
plant debris would have been unfavorable for the perfect 
preservation of the bones, and that the organic acids resulting 
from its decomposition would have aided in their removal. Of 
course, any protection from the air by the overlying seal of 
earth, clay, or water, would retard and prevent the oxydation 
by which the elements of cellulose become converted into 
acids; and bones immersed in vegetable remains under such 
circumstances may remain, as practically in this case, exempt 
from the dissolving agencies of vegetable acids. The Cohoes 
mastodon, found at Cohoes, N. Y., was taken from a river pot- 
hole, into which the remains had been carried, and was sur- 
mounted by vegetable debris, but had lodged upon an under- 
lying bed of marl and comminuted shale. This skeleton was 
in excellent condition. 
The Ward mastodon, now at the American Museum in New 
York City, was found at Newburgh, N. Y., in a swampy wet 
corner of a potato field, and was in a fair state of preservation. 
Commenting upon the position of such vertebrate remains, 
Dr. Warren says: “In nearly all these different spots, the 
bones have lain at the depth of from five to ten feet below the 
surface. The same fact is true of deposits near Niagara, de- 
scribed by Sir Chas. Lyell; of those in Virginia, Long Island, 
the salines of Ohio, Kentucky, and most other places in the 
western and southern country of the United States. 
