332 



BONES OF EXTINCT SPECIES. 



boar. Bones and teeth of the large animal, called the mastodon, 

 are found both in Europe and America. The great mastodon had 

 pointed grinders ; it was a native of North America, and equalled 

 in size the elephant, which in many particulars, it resembled. En- 

 tire skeletons of the mastodon have been found in salt marshes ; but 

 what is more extraordinary, parts of the flesh and the stomach have 

 been found with them. Among the vegetable substances in the 

 stomach, were distinguished the remains of some plants known in 

 Virginia. The Indians believe that this animal is still living north of 

 the Missouri, and the above circumstances render it probable, that 

 this species of mastodon has not been long extinct. Bones of other 

 species of the mastodon are found in Europe and South America; 

 these are probably more ancient. Teeth of a gigantic species of ta- 

 pir, equal in size to the rhinoceros have been found in France and 

 Germany the bones of horses are also found in great abundance, 

 with the bones of the above mentioned animals. Bones and horns 

 of the elk, the stag, and of various species of deer, and of oxen, 

 some of which closely resemble existing species, are often intermix- 

 ed with the bones of elephants, and other ancient animals. With 

 these animal remains, are also found the bones of carnivorous ani- 

 mals, of the size of the lion, the tiger and the hyena ; the bones of 

 bears are numerous particularly in caverns. 



The number of bones belonging both to the order of pachyder- 

 ixiata, and of ruminant and carnivorous quadrupeds, is so great in 

 various parts of Europe, as to leave no doubt that the animals were 

 inhabitants of northern or temperate climates. In America have 

 been found the bones of two large animals, of extraordinary form. 

 The megatherium is of the size of the rhinoceros ; it unites part of the 

 structure of the armadillo with that of the sloth ; its claws are of 

 vast length and size. The megalonyx was nearly similar in form but 

 smaller. 



Bones of the camel have been occasionally found in some parts of 

 Europe, but they are of rare occurrence. For a knowledge.of near- 

 ly all the above species of fossil mammiferous quadrupeds, we are 

 indebted to the researches of Cuvier. " Their bones," he observes, 

 " are found in that mass of earth, sand and mud, that diluvium which 

 covers our large plains, fills our caverns, and chokes up the fissures 

 in many of our rocks. They incontestably formed the population of 

 the continents, at the epoch of the great catastrophe which has des- 

 troyed their races, and has prepared the soil on which the animals 



* The most perfect tooth of this animal, which is at present known, was fovind 

 near Grenoble; the enamel is as fresh as that of a recent tooth. This tooth, of 

 which there are models in the principal museums in Europe, is in the author's col- 

 lection : it was purchased by him, at the sale of the late M. Faujas St. Fond, to- 

 gether with the tooth of a South American mastodon, found in the volcano of Im- 

 babura in the Cordilleras, and the tooth of a European mastodon, found with that 

 of the gigantic tapir near Grenoble. 



