5^ 



dent they could not, from the different angles 

 between the sockets for the tusks and the con- 

 dyles of the neck (as before remarked); the 

 horizontal position of which in the Mammoth, 

 together with the great curve of the tusks, 

 would elevate them too high into the air, di- 

 recting them backwards, twelve feet from the 

 ground ; so that they never could have been 

 brought sufficiently near the ground for any 

 kind of purpose. This position was evidently 

 absurd ; and there is infinitely more reason in 

 supposing them to have been placed like those 

 of the Wdriis^ and probably for a similar 

 purpose. 



The tusks which were found at Barber's 

 (the point of one I have Vv^ith me) exactly 

 resem^ble those in the skeleton, but very much 

 worn at the extremities, and worn in so pe- 

 culiar a manner as could not have happened 

 in an elevated position -, unless on the absurd 

 supposition, that the animal amused himself 

 with wearing and rendering them blunt, by 

 rubbing them against high and perpendicular 

 cliffs of rocks. Ihis, in a state of nature, 

 can never be supposed, whatever habits may 



