6 
pressed the hope that contemporary traces of man would be found 
if the rest of the animal was disinterred. Mr. Dickinson saw a 
large number of teeth of the Mastodon at the Museum of Zoology, 
and at the museum of the Boston Society of Natural History, but 
failed to find any more beautiful or perfect than those in his charge. 
At a meeting of the Worcester Natural History Society, on Fri- 
day evening, the President, Dr. Raymenton, gave a brief but in- 
teresting description of the Mastodon, illustrating its peculiar 
process of dentition by drawings on the blackboard. Several of the 
teeth were shown and handed about for examination. Dr. Ray- 
menton had opened negotiations with Mr. Maynard with a view to 
securing the specimens for the cabinet of his society, where they 
properly belong ; and had offered one hundred dollars for the priv- 
ilege of exhuming the rest of the skeleton. The owner refused the 
offer, as he could not afford to have his meadow torn up for that 
sum, and fixed his price at five hundred dollars. It is probable, 
however, that some arrangement will be made by which the Natural 
History Society will come into possession of the relics. 
The Sunday following (Nov. 23), while Mr. Maynard and his 
family were attending public worship, his premises were taken pos- 
session of by a horde of invaders from Clinton, Northborough, 
Marlborough and other adjacent towns, who, with an easy disregard 
of the Decalogue characteristic of the natives of that region, pro- 
ceeded to exhume the Mastodon on their own account. Fortu- 
nately the owner returned in season to prevent the upheaval of any 
considerable portion of his meadow, but not before a number of 
teeth had been found and carried away, which were recovered at 
the expense of no little time and effort. 
At the present writing (Dec. 1884), nine teeth (four of them 
undeveloped) have been secured, together with numerous pieces 
of bone belonging to the head, and portions of the tusks. The 
work of exhumation is at present suspended, but will be resumed. 
No description of the Mastodon is intended in this article, as 
nothing more could be done than to copy what may be found in 
any encyclopaedia. The inquirer is referred to Dr. Warren's elab- 
orate monograph, pubHshed in 1852 (second edition, 1855-6), 
