FOSSIL GEOLOGY OF UNITED STATES. 297 



clay, very compact and tenacious, are deposited the 

 bones of extinct species." Mr. Cooper estimates, 

 from the number of teeth and other bones removed 

 from Big Bone Lick, that it would have required 

 more than 100 mammoth and 20 elephants to have 

 furnished the specimens already carried off. When 

 the country was first discovered, many of these 

 bones either lay on the ground, or very near it un- 

 der the surface. We may form some idea of the 

 size of the mammoth from some remains lately dis- 

 covered in Jackson county, Ohio. Of these the 

 tusk was nearly eleven feet lon^, and weighed 180 

 pounds. One of the teeth weighed 8 1-4 pounds. 

 These bones were dug from the bank of a creek, 

 near the water, where they were found under a 

 mass of stratified sands and clays 15 to 18 feet in 

 thickness. 



One of the finest specimens of fossil mammoth 

 in this country was obtained from a soft bog or 

 meadow near Long Branch, in New-Jersey. The 

 proprietor of the farm, walking over a reclaimed 

 marsh, observed something projecting through the 

 turf, which he struck with his foot, and found to be 

 a grinder tooth. Two other teeth, some pieces of 

 the scull, the spine, the humerus, and other bones, 

 were afterward found. The soil around was a soft, 

 dark peat, full of vegetable fibres. Though the 

 scull and many other bones had been removed be- 

 fore Messrs. Cooper, De Kay, and Van Rensselaer 

 examined the spot, they were able to find the ver- 

 tebral column with all the joints, the ribs articulated 

 to them, resting in their natural position, about 

 eight or ten inches below the surface. The scapu- 

 lae both rested upon the heads of the humeri, and 

 these, as ia life, in a vertical position upon the 

 bones of the forearm. The right forearm inclined 

 a little backward, and the foot immediately below 

 was a little in advance of the other, in the attitude 

 of walking. Ten inches below the surface was the 



