Editorial Comment. 325 
lying Devonian than the higher Carboniferous, only five out of 
the forty species now referred to the genus being found above 
the Devonian. In each case these species are described from 
the Kinderhook or the Waverly beds. 
It will thus be seen that so far as the paleontologic evidence 
goes the shale shows Devonian affinities. This shale, as 
exposed at Burlington, may be traced almost continuously 
northward to the mouth of English river, and up that stream 
connecting with the Maple Mill shale. 
It seems not improbable that ultimately, in Iowa at least, 
a considerable portion of the beds now referred to the Kinder- 
hook, including this shale, may be found to have closer affini- 
ties with the Devonian than with the Carboniferous. 
EDITORIAL COMMENT. 
The Shaw Mastouons. 
An exceedingly interesting addition has been recently 
made to the already valuable collection of the Cincinnati So- 
ciety of Natural History. In June, 1894, a cistern was exca- 
vated on the land of Miss Louise Shaw, and some fragments 
of bone were thrown out. With unusual but highly com- 
mendable appreciation of the find. Miss Shaw immediately 
communicated the news to the society and suspended opera- 
tions on the cistern for a month or more until arrangements 
were made to examine the place. Mr. Seth Hayes, the direc- 
tor of the museum, superintended the work of excavation, 
and after three weeks of constant and careful labor extricated 
from the clay the often fragile specimens which now adorn the 
society's rooms in Cincinnati. These prove the presence of 
at least three individuals, two of which present the character, 
thus far unknown in America, of ^/fo well developed but small 
tusks in the lower jaw. Occasionally a single small incisor 
(tusk) is found in the lower jaw of the American mastodon 
(J/, americanuii), but the species showing two of these organs 
have hitherto been limited to the old world. It is noteworthy 
also that the double lower tusks characterize the older forms 
of the mastodon, such as M. aiKjiistidens of the Miocene, and 
