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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



the hunting grounds of the mastodon, possibly its breeding 

 places. The series of swamps in the long Appalachian valleys 

 of Orange and adjoining counties runs southward into New 

 Jersey, and there the mastodon bones are also found with fre- 

 quency. Strangely, throughout the belt of territory between the 

 Delaware river on the east and eastern Tompkins county on the 

 west (virtually the meridian of Cayuga lake), a distance of about 

 100 miles, and thence north and south across the State, no single 

 instance is shown by the record, of the presence of these remains. 

 This can not be due to the fact that swamps and pools have not 

 existed over this region, but must be ascribed to the gregarious 

 habit of the animals and to the fact that some inducement 

 brought them together in the other regions ; probably more tavor- 

 able conditions for feeding and breeding. Western New York is 

 a region of salt licks, but the central region is equally so, while 

 the lower Hudson presents no such inducement. 



I insert here a page (492) from an article by F. A. Lucas of the 

 National Museum, on the Restoration of Extinct Animals, pub- 

 lished in the annual report of the Smithsonian Institution for 

 1900 and by courtesy of the secretary a copy of Gleeson's draw- 

 ing which accompanies Mr Lucas's paper. 



The mastodon is an elephant, and his general appearance is 

 indicated [in the accompanying drawing by J. M. Gleeson], but 

 there are certain details some of which are purely deductive and 

 some of which have fortunately been proved for us. The skeleton 

 shows that, taking it as a whole, the mastodon and African ele- 

 phant represent two extremes of elephantine structures, the latter 

 being the highest or longest legged, the former being for its bulk 

 the lowest, most massive species known, although low is a com- 

 parative term, for the animal attained a hight of 10 feet. Yet 

 when the skull and teeth are considered, these two animals have 

 decided points of resemblance. The skull of the African elephant 

 is flatter than that of the Indian species; the skull of the mas- 

 todon is even more depressed, and, as this feature would have 

 shown plainly in life, it should be borne in mind in making any 

 restorations. Many mastodon tusks have been found, and thus 

 we know that they were slightly heavier, more abruptly tapering 

 t haii in the mammoth or Indian elephant, and that, while there 

 was great variety in the curve, in the typical examples from 

 eastern North America they described nearly a half circle. In 

 supplying the mastodon with a trunk it is to be borne in mind that 

 there is a striking difference between the trunks of the Asiatic 



