214 Notices of Big-hone Lick. 



New Jersey, where the ciiiisnals seem to have perished quietly 

 on the spot where their remains are found, the parts belonging 

 to each individual lying near each other, and Sometimes entire 

 skeletons without a bone displaced,* the frames of those found at 

 Big-bone Lick, seem rather to have been torn asunder, and in- 

 termixed in the most promiscuous disorder, before they were per- 

 mitted to find here a place of rest. It is rare to meet with a 

 single bone of the large animals, or of those smaller ones, that 

 accompany them, that is not more or less bruised or broken. Of 

 all the under jaws brought from this place, I have seen but one, 

 in which at least one side was not wanting ; and in this the teeth 

 were all gone. This cannot be ascribed to brittleness from de- 

 cay ; for, as is well known, the bones found here are remarkably 

 hard and solid. Still they are much less entire than those found 

 in the state of New York, whose texture is generally impaired 

 by decomposition. Some of those, which I collected at Big-bone 

 Lick, have their cancelli entirely filled with stony matter, by 

 which their weight and hardness are much increased. But 

 generally, they look like fresh bones; and the fact of their retain- 

 ing gelatine, which I have verified, is well known. 



Mr. Bullock says, in his account of those discovered last year, 

 which were too deeply buried to leave room to suspect that they 

 had been ever before disturbed, since they were brought to the spot 

 where he found them, " many of the bones are much waterworn 

 and broken ; scarcely any that are not so, more or less. Some 

 large fragments of the tusks of the elephant are worn quite flat 

 and smooth, as if they had lain half buried in a water course, and 

 worn down by the action from above." In fact, the mere cir- 

 cumstance of finding so large a number of detached teeth as has 

 been often found, lying together within a small compass, is alone 

 sufficient to prove that the owners did not perish where these 

 lie. In that case, the teeth would have remained in the respec- 

 tive heads, and have, consequently, occupied a much larger space. 

 The teeth of buffaloes, which there is every reason to believe 

 died from time to time at or near the spot, are never met with 

 in heads separated from tlie bones, as is the case with those of 

 the elephant and mastodon. 



It has been attempted to account for the heaping up of the 

 bones and teeth found last autumn, which it is said formed a sort 



* See Aniidls/ Lyceum of N. Y. voj. 1. p. 143: 



