NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 1.13 



are through Thibet, Tartary, and Siberia, to the present North Pole, and thence along in 

 North America through the tracts west of Hudson's Bay and Lake Superior, to the sources 

 of the Mississippi, and thence down to the Gulf of Mexico, near its places of disembogue- 

 ment, and so onward across New Spain to the South Sea. That such was probably the 

 old equatorial line. 



In corroboration of this gentleman's opinion, he truly alleges, that under the ancient 

 equator have been found the remains of animals peculiar to warm climates ; the bones of 

 the elephant and the rhinoceros are discovered almost all the way where he would desig- 

 nate the ancient equator ; that in colder latitudes the frozen bodies themselves on the 

 banks of the Genessee and the Lena, and in masses of ice lying upon the shores of the 

 Asiatic continent, and thereabouts, have attracted the attention of the naturalist ; that in 

 America, the valley of the Mississippi was the place of the former equator, in which di- 

 rection the fossil skeletons are most frequent, and that the creatures to whom they belong, 

 may be supposed to have perished at the grand catastrophe in their proper and natural 

 climates ; that the migration of the human race, and the passage of animals from Asia to 

 America, find a solution by this theory, of easy and rational comprehension. 



Dr. Mitchill descants largely and philosophically upon the causes of this change ; but 

 as these remarks would be too voluminous to insert here, I shall forbear to enlarge further 

 on a subject involving so many considerations necessary in the examination of the causes 

 and effects producing such vast geological phenomena. 



This hypothesis of Dr. Mitchill will easily and readily explain the phenomena of these, 

 as well as of others found in our northern and some southern regions. And if we can admit 

 that these skeletons are nothing more than elephantine relics, of a well known, or even 

 an unknown species, the difficulties now presenting themselves disappear. For my own 

 part, I have reasoned myself into a different opinion ; but, after all, the fact must remain 

 encompassed with so many doubts and difficulties, as to perplex the learned and curious. 

 It is important also to add, that with the discoveries of these skeletons, have been found 

 considerable locks and tufts of hair : having been buried a great length of time in a cal- 

 caneus substance, it retained its natural appearance, and was brought to light in a tolera- 

 ble state of perfection ; the length was from one and a half to two inches and a half, of 

 a dunnish brown colour. In one instance, the hair was much longer, measuring from four 

 to seven inches in length, of the same colour, and resembling, in appearance, the shorter, 

 and was conjectured to have been the mane of the mammoth. Whether a discoloration 

 had not taken place, from its native appearance, must remain a matter of conjecture. In 

 every instance, an exposure to air caused it to moulder away into a kind of impalpable 

 dust. This fact would seem to render it certain, that the animal, the relics of whose body 



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