1 64 JVotices of Big-bone Lick, 



Four humeri? much mutilated, three of them from the left 

 side. 



Upper extremity of ulna. 



Five carpal, two metacarpal, and one phalangial bone of fore 

 foot. 



Large fragment of os innominatum. 

 Another, comprising the acetabulum. 

 Lower extremity of left femur. 

 Patella, tibia, epiphyses, gone. 

 Calcaneum. 



Besides numerous fragments, not requiring especial notice, 

 but like the rest, indicating, by their shattered condition, the 

 violence they were exposed to, before their final deposition 

 at this spot. Some appear to have been a little rubbed, but 

 the broken edges are generally sharp, and the surfaces un- 

 scratched. ^ | 



The bones discovered by Mr. Finnell, in September, 1830, 

 form one of the most interesting series belonging to the mastodon, 

 that has probably ever been assembled. Having taken notes of 

 these, while exhibited in New York this summer, I am enabled 

 to give the following descriptive catalogue, in which I have in- 

 cluded such anatomical, and other observations, as appeared to 

 be new or interesting. The first will naturally be 



A head, more entire than any previously discovered here or 

 eisewhere. It is still, however, too imperfect to enable me 

 to complete the description of this important part, and it is 

 especially to be regretted, that so much is wanting around 

 the exterior opening of the nostrils, that we can derive no 

 aid from it, in endeavouring to determine with certainty, 

 from the structure of this part, whether or not the mastodon 

 was furnished with a trunk. But enough remains to show, 

 that it differed materially from the elephant's in form. It 

 in fact bears more resemblance, in some respects, though to- 

 tally different in others, to that of the rhinoceros, particu- 

 larly in the nearly vertical elevation of the occiput, giving 

 the skull the general form of a pyramid, of which the oc- 

 ciput is the base, and the alveolar processes the summit, 

 there being a gradual and pretty regular slope from be- 

 tween these, nearly to the edge of the occiput. It is, 

 however, much broader and flatter on the top, than in 



