ALLUVIAL DIVISION. 47 
joint, and there will be no signs of the rotation of one bone of the forearm on the other. 
These characters indicate “ an herbivorous quadruped, either with a solid or cloven foot.”* 
Mastodon. 
Of all the remains of mammiferous animals investigated by Cuvier, those of the Masto¬ 
don, or the Mammoth, as it is frequently called, are to us of peculiar interest, in consequence 
of their common occurrence in our country, of their great size, and of their being the first 
which convinced naturalist, beyond all doubt, that animals had formerly existed whose species 
are now extinct. 
The term mammoth, usually employed in this country in common language, does not strictly 
belong to the Mastodon ; and it arose in the first place from a mistake of Dr. W. Hunter,! 
who, on examining some bones of this animal, concluded they were of the same kind as those 
found in Siberia, and which were believed by the inhabitants of that country to belong to a 
large unknown animal, called Mammoth, and which has since been proved to be a species 
of Elephant. Cuvier, after investigating the anatomy of both these animals, inferred that 
they were distinct, not only in species but in genus. He gave the name mastodonte to 
the American animal, from the peculiar form of its teeth. The term mammoth is retained 
for the Siberian animal, which is a species of elephant.^ Teeth of the mammoth or fossil 
elephant, have been found in the United States, in connection with those of the mastodon, and 
are, perhaps, as abundant. 
The earliest records that we have of the bones of these animals, the mastodon and the fossil 
elephant or mammoth, is believed to be the letter from Cotton or Increase Mather to the 
Royal Society of London, between 1650 and 1700, describing the bones of one of these animals 
as found near Albany. It is perhaps unnecessary to dwell upon the inferences from the disco¬ 
very of these bones, farther than to state, that in those times when comparative anatomy was 
unknown, they were supposed to be the remains of a huge giant. They have since been 
found in almost every part of our country except New-England, but perhaps in greater abun¬ 
dance in New-York, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri, than in other parts. 
Their remains are found only in the alluvial deposits, and most frequently in deposits of peat, 
lake or shell marl, in the banks of streams, or in the vicinity of salt licks, or where saline 
substances exude or effloresce from the earth. Such places have been in former times, and 
are still in the more sparsely settled parts of the country, the resort of wild animals to lick 
the clay, and frequently the more feeble and diseased die in the vicinity. 
* Bell on the Hand. t Phil. Trans. Vol. 58, 1767. 
t Boston Journal, (Dr. Ware,) Vol. 1, p. 257; Anatomy of Mastodon (by the same,) Bost. Journal, Vol. 1, p. 391. 
