The Davenport gazette. [volume] (Davenport, Scott Co., Iowa) 1841-185?, 1850-08-29
FOSSIL REMAINS IN THE WEST.

| We find tho following interesting conmuni
cation from DR.. JoHN LOCKE. Qf Cincinnati, in I'll.
"Clncinnati Commercially" and transfer it entire
to our columns, on account Of the many impor.
ant data whichit furnishes regarding the Fossil
| Remains recently discovered in various sections
Of the Union. Says DR.. Locke:
81 have examined with much interest the fos.
sill tusk which you have done me the honor 10
submit to my inspection. twas found, il seems
! in Covngton, ION the grounds OF Capt. G. W
| Cntier.1 1t is not tusl of the Mastodon, but
Of the extinct Elephant, (Elephas prin,ogenus
Quite number Of specimens OF this kind have,
at various times, been found in the Cincinnati,
Valley, and throughout the West. In digging
the foundations of my own house, a moar tooth
OF this Elephant was found, and near Xenis, a
very large and fine one was dragged by a seine
from the Little Miami River, and was sent to me
by the Clerk of the c urt in that county 1t liz
l2 inches long, inches wide, and 81 inches
| thick, weighing 81 pounds. The number of
plates of which it is composed is %. The depth
10 which it was set In The jaw was 81 inches
Your specimen, from Capt. Cutters, is rather a
small tnsk, being about 3inches in diameter, but
il is beautifully white and shows the ivory struc-
ture quite perfectly. 1t is disposed to crumble
and exfoliate, condition which is the result of
drying, and not of mere exposure to the air, as is
popularity supposed. To be preserved, those spe-
cimens which ordinarily 90 to pieces should be
basted or soaked in WARM size Of glue, and after
ward vanished the material Of the tusk is not
tosslized, except negatively; for although all
the animal matter, all the glue and albumen, had
disappeared, it remained very light, and did not
appear to have absorbed any mineral matter, as
Line, silica or iron. When heated before the
blow-pipc, fragment neither blacken nor
gave out considerable odor. The same was
true Of the Xenia molar tooth. Bat M ,stodon
bone, from Bigbone Lick, when treated in the
\ IL. 4
eide dly Of burned fat, and if the caeareous mat.
ter were dissolved OUT, a nutrient, though proba-
bly, not very palatabe, sonp nigh; be made from
those bones. But the mere odor of burned NJ is-
todon grease is suific cnt luxury to an antigua
rinn. | tested, in the same wa :. the skulls Of
two mound builders taken from the mounds
ofGrnve Creek, in Virginia, and, although they
were quite tender and pulyerulen', they black
ened, smoked, and gave ont animal odor like the
Mammoth (Mas,odon) bones, showing that
portion Of the animal substances still clung to
these relics of him who, more than a thousand
years ago, toled so ndusfiunsy and reginusly
to heap his hand barrow loads Of earth into the
wonderful earth-works ofthe West.
ssThese Elephant bones and tushs appear bv
the above test 10 bo older than the Mastodon Of
Bi ebone, bur in the hands OF D.. Duclland of
Oxford, lodged in silver caske, from the EN-
peror OF Russia, have seen the dried flesh, skin
and hair of this sane species Of Elephant, the
specimen having beer found in the ice Of She
Ter: Isl, black brisies about l2 inches long; Cd,
within the brisiles covering of hair; Cd, still
shorter than the hair, close covering OF fur.
How admirably adapted 10 northern climate,
and how different from the almast naked Afri-
canor Asiaic ephani oI modern tines. With
this thick shaggy cont, eniarging the animal two
feet in every diameter, what irlghtiul beast
must he have been, which bore the strong dam
gerons tusk now so blanched aud fragile, and
the ponder us mo!ar, with its burr-stone surface,
grinding the branches of trees and shrubs into
saw-4ust nutriment, amid the SHOWS OF north
ern Winter, and still 81 firm with its enameled
plates as to have endured he surgv tossings of
slhe Fiood,' and since that the more protracted
prosecutions Of the M ami. How must he have
a ,peared, so black, 8, huge, rolling along in un
~edy majesty, with his long spiral white tusks,
aud with his dark figure, col,rasted with The
whittier snow.n