60 
Probosidia (having a flexible trunk). — This group is represented 
by the Mastodon, and by teeth and bones of the fossil Elephant, 
Elephas americanus. See Case Q, Sects. 12 and 13. 
Fig. 47. 
SKELETON OF MASTODON GIGANTEUS, Cuvier. 
The Mastodon, an animal closely resembling the Elephant in 
general appearance, but proportionally heavier and more stocky, 
was at one time a common inhabitant of this country, but became 
extinct probably several thousand years ago. The bones, when 
many of those of one individual are found together, always occur 
in peaty swamps or bogs, or in places where they may have become 
mired or drowned. But sometimes isolated bones or teeth are • 
found in gravel or marly deposits, and have, in such cases, been 
transported from their original bed by water or ice action. 
The bones of the skeleton in the Museum were found imbedded 
in peaty material on the edge of what was, less than fifty years 
before, an open pond of considerable size, subsequently drained 
and brought under cultivation, situated in the town of Little 
Britain, about nine miles southwest of Newburg, N. Y., and at the 
time of their discovery, cultivated as a potato field. In digging 
a ditch, twenty inches deep, to more completely drain this spot, 
