298 FOSSIL GEOLOGY OF UNITED STATES. 



sacrum, with the pelvis united, though decayed. 

 The femora were close by, but lay in a position 

 nearly horizontal, the right less than the left, and 

 both at right angles with the spine. Both tibiae, 

 each with its fibula, stood nearly erect in their 

 natural place beneath the femora, and below them 

 were the bones of the hinder feet in their places ; 

 no caudal vertebrae were seen. The marsh had 

 been drained for three years, and the surface had, 

 in consequence, been lowered about two feet, pro- 

 ducing, probably, the dislocated attitude of the 

 thigh bones. Beneath the peaty bed a sandy stra- 

 tum was seen, and all the feet were noticed to be 

 standing upon the top of this floor of the bog. 



The magnificent skeleton of the mastodon* in 

 Peale's Museum, Philadelphia, was found near the 

 Walkill, west of the Hudson River. Fossil re- 

 mains of this animal have also been discovered in 

 Rockland county (New- York), and in all the West- 

 ern States, in some instances uncovered by any 

 diluvial deposites. 



The bones of the megatherium, which is de- 

 scribed at great length, and figured in Buckland's 

 Geology, an animal larger than the rhinoceros, and 

 resembling the sloth, have been found in a recent 

 marsh on Skidaway Island (Georgia), and those of 

 the megalonyx at the Big Bone Lick, and also in 

 White Cave, Kentucky. 



As to the period when these animals ceased to 

 exist, there is much uncertainty. While some ge- 

 ologists have attributed their destruction to that ca- 

 tastrophe which strewed this continent with bowl- 

 ders and gravel, others have supposed that they 

 have disappeared since the flood, as their remains 

 are often discovered in the bogs and marshes, un- 



* This skeleton measures eighteen feet in length and eleven 

 feet five inches in height. The tusks are ten feet seven inches 

 long. It seems to have been provided with a trunk, and in its 

 food and manner of living to have resembled the elephant. 



