The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1810-12-27 00:00:00

THE MA3LVOTIL

• Cincinnati k(tbiti), Sept 22, la 11.
Soar rsoisrks,neeati,nesl by Dr. Bartaas letter to Mr. Jel.
femcin, on Matnniatit bones; aids new obaeriations con-
in rain times- awl I.itts r animal rcistaluti to 'wits
farther investigaiwu
The various not-descript animal remains found
in America, tool elsewhere, have liithi rto been on-
accouotably colifotiuded togetiter (with a solitary
exception) under the general appellation of' Mama
moth horis-,t—as if they belonged to s single species
only; a hercis they ore different both iii genus and
species. tither this delusion, we find Sir 11. Sloane,
Measersmidt, Ilauter, Daubemon, Jefferson, and
others who have treated on the subject. Dr. B.
iatl•eil has side:owed one step beyond them to-
wards the truth, hut he has not gone far enough ;
for, iii noticing the Ohio bones, he appears not to
he aware ill .t they are the remains of various din.
tioct animals. To prove this it is only neceseary to
examine the several skeletons.
From the drawings and description. transmitted
from St. Petersburgh, of what the Doctor terms
the great Asiatic Mammoth, he thinks that it is
specifically, thingh not generally, distinct from the
North American Mammoth—'that whose bones
have been discovered in so tunny parts of our
Continent, and that of which Mr. Peale hes mount-
ed the skeleton in his Museum."—Having neither
teen those drawings nor that skeleton. I sin but ill
red to form an opinion concerning them ; but z:„ repeatedly examined numerous specimeos of
wer Mammoth bones, so called (and here, Mr.
it may truly be said, we tread on Mammoth
wound), I feel no liesitatioii in asserting, that they
are the remains. not only of one, two, or three
-apnoea only, brit of half a dozen at least, and of
see than nue genus too. Among these may he
Insioad two kinds of huge ivory tusks, differing both
lu figure end sir. These, it ti presumable, be-
haved to different species of the elephantine class.
The Great Bone Lick iu our utighbourhood
absissis with fossil hours ; and from them it is
• GM, to prove the once existeoce of diff•reut races
Air creatures. vitriol', in their character and pur-
• -Hain ; slice of them of extraortliiiary stature. mid
.ef we except the two just mentioned) at:connected
'Veldt the family of Elephas. In the teeth, Maas,
041011 heel bones of certain skeletons !criteria of the
-NMivaivorous tribes), we perceive the remains of asi.re
one crestuee of that descnption. Thr stature
ore one of these it enormous; sod to this animal,
.la.nesably, belonged those large grinders (rio-
•hres) that are set with a double row of conic
proper • ,ea on the mistiest ing PU":IICC. One of them
weighed Nearly 10 1..5.--Other and larger grinders
are frequently found. which are evulei.tly parts of
anim Ile not carnivorous. The upper surface is
fiat, mid the whole hears a near re.einhlaner to the
tooth of an elepha t. These teeth wee, with confi-
dence, be esaigiied to the creator: al who wore the
tusks. A tooth 31 this 111:51 riptiint weighed my
lb...—With respect to t..e tusks [iltfeuces) the
are spretfically different. One of them varies but
Witte fetes that of an elephant, hiving more trans.
verse lines, and less prominent than those of the
saarlern teeth ; the other is far longer sad different.
1, festooned : for, instead of the slight curve which
- narks the former, this take a spiral direction,
forming an involved earvature to the amount of
Bunt or more turns or twists.-1 have ant seen an
entire tusk of this sort ; but a fragment of one.
evidently broken off at each end, was about 14 feet
in length!
la addition to the animals not carnivorous. we
sometimes, though rarely, meet with the skel-ton
of a large horned beast, apparently of the Boa fa-
mily. A finite-tit of the limn attached to a por-
tico of the won, portly petrified, and the horny
cover consequently gone. measured at the root or
place of its insertion, inches to circumference.
What remarried attr h:urn, was shout three feet in
length; and, from its diameter at th. broken end,
we may infer it was not less than twelve or fourteen
feet long, when entire.—This was 3 hoofed
as appears from a specimen M my porseurion.—As
a proof of the enormous vulu ne of some among
those non-descript anirnalr, I shall mention here a
portion of an Os Inmate winch opportunity threw
my way. It was upwards of tro feet square,
and eight inches in thickness, mot had. no doubt,
been thicker, since the surface was considerably de-
cayed.

The remains of another animal have been dia.
covered at the same Lick or Saline. The skull was
of an ordinary size; but little larger than that of
a rum. A horn protruded from each side, and,
reis,ing off burisoutidly two or three inches from the
TOOt it was several iodise in diameter), sud-
denly dipped in nearly a perpendicular direction.
This, however. I did not see myself; I depend on
the veracity of my informant.
The following fact may lead us tc fors mime idea
as to the enormous frame of the carnivorous ani-
mals :—Having olitiined a complete set of the foot
bones, and the &epistle of a am, I put them to.
gather, which gave for the length if treed of six feet,
exclusive of the claw. This fragment was nine
inches in length. sad plait'', appeared to have suf-
fered diminution at the root, or thick end. It was
the cste only, the horn having disappeared. Whet
was it- length, when cutler, can only be conjec-
tured. If we consider the relative thickness of horn,
coating • claw of such magnitude. and the requi-
site protrusion of it at the point or irf 11l ill &MOO of
the claw, it may nit he extravagant to compute its
entire length at fourteen inches.
hissing already noticed a carnivorous grinder of
nearly folbs. weight. it may he proper to observe
that if (4 I ern lammed) the skeleton
tnts%euut belongs to our larger connections
the rural could not hate eciptirini hie tali
growth—for in a publication describing it, I re-
collect the weight of its heaviest grinder was stated
at little snore than ighs.
After she facts already detailed in proof that
part of our remains belonged to *Motels of the
carisivor.mo order, if any who tray mail this she uld
yet he untested vents demists on the sidiject. those
doiebta will likely be dispelled or perosing whet
follows :—The water of the Creek at the Great
Bone Lick is strongly brackish, cud the rents coo.
sideraldy impregoaterl with sell. Now it is well
known that such places become the haunt of hut.
Utiors, elks, deer. &c. who resort thither to drink the
salt mater and lie k the impregnated earth.
It r highly probiside, that latch of the keg. r

shot whose reoiains we have noticed. 'nude
sueh.pirocts their resort ; those of the lierhivor.ius
ur graminiverous ki iJ, on in cuunt of the salt ; and
those that were carnivorous, iii search albeit prey :
for, that they preyed upon the smaller annuals enu-
merated above, is * tact sufficiently established by
the immense quantity of their busies which
both margins of the creek; and it alf..rds the
strongcst curroboratuni, to oloserve the
tures which those hones exhibit, and which were
undoubtedly occasioued by the carnivorous tribe,
while la the ICI of devouring their pre:,.
The venous huge remains which more penicil-
lin ly form the suhject of this ca umu iicauon, are
frequen.ly found pro.oihcuou.ly buried together.
It niiy not be diflotilt to account for this appearance,
if we consider what writers of crerht aver, that the
elephant and rhinoceros of Af►ica never hupiien to
meet without giving battle, in which our or both of
them invariably fall.

EAST P%DIES.