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LETTER XXVII. 
MASTODON. 
We now come to the examination of one of the most stupendous 
animals known, either in a recent or a fossil state; and which, whether 
we contemplate its original mode of existence, or the period at which 
it lived, our minds cannot but be filled with astonishment. 
The first traces of this animal are sketched in a letter from Dr. 
Mather, of Boston, to Dr. Woodward, in 1/12, and are transcribed 
from a work in manuscript, entitled Bihlia Americana. In this work, 
teeth and bones of a prodigious size, supposed to be human, are said 
to have been found in Albany, in New England*. About the year 
1/40, numerous similar bones were found in Kentucky, on the Ohio, 
and dispersed among the European virtuosos. Buffon, speaking of 
these teeth and bones, found by M. le Baron de Longueuil, M. de 
Bienville, and M. de Lignery, says: — “It can never be supposed 
that these teeth could have been taken from the same head with the 
tusks.” — “ In supposing this, it would be necessary to admit the ex- 
istence of an unknown animal, which had tusks similar to those of 
the elephant, and grinders resembling those of the hippopatamus.” 
Mem. de V Acad. Roy. des Sciences, 1/62. 
In 1/65, several of these remains were found by Mr. G. Croghan, 
four miles to the south-east of the Ohio, and were conveyed to England. 
These bones were discovered five or six feet below the surface ; and, 
from the quantity of bones, it was concluded, that there could not be 
less than thirty skeletons of this animal. Mr. Collinson, in a letter to 
* Philosophical Transactions, abridged by Jones, Vol. V. Part II. p. 159. 
