3808: | 
to give that faculty the direction re- 
quired. He should feel on every occa-~ 
sion the privations that result from his 
defect, and the impossibility of avoiding 
those privations, by any substitute for tie 
cultivation of the organs in which the de- 
fect resides. 
How disastrous for the poor savage of 
Aveyron, was the fatal mistake of placing 
him in an hospital for the deaf and 
dumb! | 
I am in possession of many facts, well 
authenticated, which prove, beyond all 
question, that speechlessness has some- 
times been caused by an early initia- 
tion into the language of signs, and the 
prompttude of those around to com- 
prehend and to.obey the mute mandates 
of the early dactylologist. If so, the lan- 
guage of signs, so important to the edu- 
cation of the deaf, should assuredly be 
excluded with the utmost jealousy, trom 
every seminary established fur the educa- 
tion of those who are merely aftlicted 
with impediments or defects in the or- 
gans of voice and enunciation, Far be 
from them: the seductions of .that substi- 
tuted eloquence which speaks to the eye 
alone. Ratherlet the youth of tardy and 
imperfect utterance dwell and associate 
in thosemansions only, where the voice of 
harmony for ever flows; where all in- 
structions are communicated, and all the 
intercourses of life endeared, by the well- 
modulated periods of a graceful and ani- 
mated oratory; and where’ all around 
are purposely and systematically blind 
to the subterfuges of dactylology and ges- 
tures. Your’s, &c. 
Bedford-place, 
December 9, 1807. 
N.B. In my former communication on 
this subject, vol.-xxiv. p. 444, second co- 
jumn, near the bottom, is the following error 
of the press:—-** such enthusiasm can only 
be recommendable in those,” &c. instead of 
*€ can only be commendable in,” &c. 
eS 
Lo the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
oi aSiR. 
WN R. Thomas Ashe,who has passed se- 
Bi ‘& veral years in North America, has 
returned to England with several boxes 
containing objects of the highest inter- 
est to the curious and intelligent world. 
Conseious of the erroneous opinions which 
bad been entertained respecting the stu- 
pendous animal remains found im Russia, 
Siberia, and the western climes, he made 
researches for such materials as he knew 
to be necessary for the foundation of ab- 
Curious Fossile Bones from America. 
“y. THELWALL, . 
205 
stract truth, or reasonable hypothesis, 
It is presumed that the name Mammoth, 
(a Russian term from Memoth, a word de- 
rived trom the Arabic Mehemot,) signi- 
fies the behemoth, sublimely described 
by Job. This animal was herbivorous; 
therefore the term mammoth should be 
confined to such large bones, as manifest, 
from their structure. an anunal of that 
order ; and other names should be cen- 
ferred on those which betray - evident 
signs of contrary propensities. That the 
bones hitherto denominated “ manmoth 
bones,” are the remains of various incog- 
nita, er non-descript animals, becomes 
evideat from the result of the writer’s re- 
searches, 
Box, No.1, Contains the principal 
part of the head of a carnivorous animal, — 
The jaws are entire, filled with grinders. 
The seat of the muscies is traced deeply 
along the nose, and, from their depth, 
must have given violent action to the 
nostrils and lips. Here is also a maxilla 
anfersor of the same kind of monster, but 
much larger, and of great weight and 
beauty. 
Box, No, 2, Contains the vertebra ix 
high preservation. The os sacrum and coc- 
cygts are connected by the ossification 
of the cartilage; and the bed of the 
coccygzi muscles are strongly visible. 
Through the cavity for the passage of the 
spinal marrow a man’s arm can easily 
pass. 
Box, No. 3, Has the os ischium, pel¥is, 
thigh, and leg bone. These bones are 
both ponderous and perfect. 
Box, No. 4, Contains an object of in- 
expressible grandeur and sublimity. It 
is the foot of a clawed animal, possibly of 
the order of yere, for the claws are sheath- 
ed and:retractile, im the manner of the 
cat, tiger, and hon. When this paw was 
dilated on its prey, filled with muscles, 
flexors, and cartilage, clothed with flesh, 
turgid skin, and hair, it must have covered 
a space of ground four feet by three. 
The animal to whom it appertained, with 
superior agility and ferocity to the tiger, 
witha body, too, of uncqualled magnitude 
and streneth, must have been the terror 
of the forest and ofa man. This monu- 
ment standsalone. It has no competitor. 
It is the first and only one of such exor- 
bitant magnitude ever discovered. 
Box, No. 5, Contains a rib, and frag- 
ments of mbs, not concave internally, but 
with the edges standing out, to give more 
energy, and to bear more resistance. 
From henee it would appear that the 
animal was endowed with the gift of 
contrac. 
