Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1876-08-17
Another Skeleton of a MastOd0n

| AHOlner Skeleton OF haStOuGD.
SOME three or four weeks AGO a
farmer by the name of Charles Dennis.
whose farm is a quarter of a mile east
by north of the village of Pike, Wyo-
ming County, While digging a ditch,
found two great ribs of an unknown
animal. subsequently a committee
from the village went to work, and al
most the first thing discovered were
| two mammoth tuSks, which, being re-
moved, measured over nine feet. the
bases of which were as large as a sew
en-inch stOyepipe, gradually tapering
to the point of the ivory, about two
| inches in diameter. The animal was
| found nearly on its back In digging
| beneath the tuSkS in order to remove
them as nearly whole as possible, as
the earth was removed that supported
them one of them broke into three
! pieces and the other into two. The
next remains discovered were seven
! teeth, several bones of the spine. the
collar bone, the scapula or shoulder
| blade, portions of the ceryical and
caudal yertebrfe, and fragmentary
portions Of the head and SubmaxiiIary
bones, all of which We're in more or
| less perfect state Of preservation. The
teeth are perfectly sound, the enamel
being as perfectly polished as when
the mastOdOn was alive and grazing
on the hills and in the valley of Wyo-
ming centuries ago. So, too, are the
outward tips Of the tusks, which for
distance of more than two feet are
as solid and sound as they ever were.
The scapula, the spinous processes and
sections OF the Stenum are tOlerably
we'll preserved.
| Judging from the dimensions of the
tusks and the enormous size of the
scapula, the cervical and dOrSal verte-
| br9, the mastOdOn must have stood,
when alive, twelve feet high and tif-
| teen feet long from the head to the
| base. of the tail. 1t is a curiosity
| we'll worthy the investigation of scien-
tific men. The most singular feature
of the tusks, their wonderful curva-
ture, forming almost complete circle,
allies the animal nearer to the Ill am
moth than any mastodOn heretofore
| discovered, either i'll this country or
Europe. The teeth, however, if there
were 10 other data, demonstrates the
class to which this specimen belongs,
viz, that of the mastOdOn. One of
these teeth, which is found separated
from the rest, weighs four pounds and
the other. The size and shape of the
molars differ as they are approximate
to, or remote from, the anterior part
of the mouth. The ribs found, or
what remains of them, are about thlr-
ty inches long. The collar bone meas
ures perpendicularly thirty-three inch
es tranSVersely, tWenty-eight inches
breadth of socket, seven inches one
way and nine the other. One of the
bones Of the spine measures twenty
two inches. In the Jaws of the mastO-
don there is found, besides the upper
tusks, inferior mandibular tuskS- a
characteristic not known in the anatO
my of the elephant. The specimens
found in this collection correspond 50
perfectly with the accounts given by
DR.. John C. Warren in his able work
on the Mastodon GiganteuS of North
America, and also with the anatomy
of the skeleton now at Cambridge, that
it places the question Of the identity Of
) the remains found at Pike beyond the
possibility of a doubt. There is a
marked difference however, touching
the shape of the tuSkS. Those found
at Pike, as said before, form almost a
complete circle instead of a slight
curvature downward and outward, as
represented by the cut in Dr.. Warren s
admirable treatiSeS on the Cambridge
skeleton, which was found in New
burgh in 1915. The tusks of the Pike
mastOdOn must have curved upward
and outward from the socket. The
detection of the points outwardly
could not have been less than eighteen
inches from the base line.-R0chester
". y Express.