^9 



the bottom. The peat or turf is thrown on 

 lands not immediately in use; and the marie, 

 after mellowing through the winter, is in the 

 spring scattered over the cultivated fields — the 

 most luxuriant crops are the consequence. — 

 It was in digging one of these, on the farm of 

 John Masten, that one of the men, thiusting 

 his spade deeper than usual, struck what he 

 supposed to be a log of wood, but on cutting 

 it to ascertain the kind, to his astonishment, 

 he found it was a bone : it was quickly cleared 

 from the surrounding earth, and proved to be 

 that of the thigh, three feet nine inches in 

 length, and eighteen inches in circumference, 

 in the smallest part. The search was con- 

 tmued, and the same evening several other 

 bones were discovered. The fame of it soon 

 spread through the neighbourhood, and excited 

 a general interest in the pursuit: all were 

 eager, at the expence of some exertions, to gra- 

 tify their curiosity in seeing the ruins of an 

 animal so gigantic, of whose bones very few 

 among them had ever heard, and over which 

 they had so often unconsciously trod. For 

 the two succeeding days upwards of an hun- 



D 2 



