The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-11-08
SETTING UP A MASToDoN.
Gigantic Skeleton from the Brooklyn
Institute Of Arts and Sciences.

y
Institute Of Arts and Sciences.
From the Rochester Post Express
He rose twelve feet at the shoulder,
wore a hairy hide and looked like
haystack with tusks. That was 5000
years ago. Now o cluster of club-like
bones is all that bears testimony to his
lire as a free. pOnderOus rover of the
immense wastes in those dim, historic
days when the earth was young and
man vague possibility living in trees.
The mastodon we call him; and out Of
awe for his supposed immensty. we
nave enriched the language by an ad-
ject1Ve which is applied to erything
big, from theatrical productions to bar
gain sales The osSeous remains are
slowly but accurately being fitted into
one another at Wards natural science
establishment in this city, where
mammoth or a mastodon is such a
commonplace sort Of a thing that it is
treated with little respect even when
its venerable dignity weighs in the ball
ance.
This maStOdon was discovered by
gardener near Newark last spring. He
was turning over his garden patch with
spade one morning and nearly tainted
when it struck a bone so huge that 1t
took three men to carry it off. The
Newark savants Immediately decided
that the discovery was of great value.
The yellow journals of the metropolis
gleefully seized upon it and printed
columns, with pictures of it feeding
placidly or waging combat fiercely with
rival These same newspapers made
guesses as to the 'val&le of the skeleton
The average price was decided to be
100000. The market gardener at once
began to build an extensive addition to
his house. The real price did not reach
one-twentieth of that amount. The
bones We're bid in by the Brooklyn In
stitute of Arts and Sciences. The Ward
establishment received the order for
their mounting. 1t will be completed
| along in June. The mastodon and the
Tissot pictures may be gazed upon in
the same visit to the Brooklyn insti-
tute. They will not, however, OCCUPY
the same room.
1t is quite likely that in the imagin-
alton of the great majority a man.
moth and mastodon are two names
for the same beast Both are huge,
both existed in prehistoric days and
both are pictured in encyclopedias and
stand in rickety grandeur in museums.
But the two are alike only in form and
mass. The mastodon is an earlier ami
NAL than the mammoth although a
relative by distant ties of consanguin-
ity. Outwardly they We're much alike.
The modern elephant is a pretty fair
representative of them. If he could be
covered with curly hair, wear tusks
state of New York and the city of
Rochester in careless ease, the ele
phant would be exceedingly like his
prototype of 300 centuries ago. In point
of fact he is the modern representa-
tive of the mammoth If it We're not
for his teeth. he might be likewise a
close relative of the mastodon. But the
teeth break the chain.
mammoth's teeth and an elephants
teeth are almost exactly alike. They
are fiat and oval on top. The grinding
surfaces are crossed by parallel ridges
OF enamel which, when u longitudinal
section is made. give to the upper edge
slight wavy outline. The mastodon's
teeth are totally unlike this. He won
his name from their peculiar shape. 1t
comes from two Greek words, mas
II.
means that the molars of the mastodon
are shaped like the breast with conical
knobby caps, which stick up two inches
or so from the base of the tooth. Be
sides this, the mastodons tusks, simply
elongated incisors, are straighter than
the mammoth's.
The remains of the mastodon are
found in nearly all parts of the globe.
i Ia IN he
crashing in among the dense foliage,
feeding in solitary massiveness or
fighting until the ground quivered with
his plunses. The very weight of the
huge creature often proved his ruin.
Wandering into some marshy place he
would become mired and slowly sink in
helplessness until .the ooze closed over
him. to remain hidden from ken for
5000 years, when chance should un-
cover his mighty bones to human sight.
The skeleton of this Newark masto-
don is unusually complete, The yeite-
brae, great ring shaped bones with
long divergent spikes which held the
huge muscles that supported the tusks,
We're almost all present. The tail
which looks like a full grown alligator
was perfect The pelvis. eight or nine
feet from edge to edge, the skull, tooth
and tusks We're in singularly COM
plete state of preservation, The legs
We're missing and will have To be sup
piled by the mounters. This, however
is not so difficult. Leg bones of the
mastodon are frequently found and
from them may be taken plaster casts,
which when made up are so like the
real bones that am expert alone can
tell the difference. These leg bones are
huge objects. They look like water
worn, knotty logs, four feet long,
twelve inches thick, and a hundred
pounds in weight. The measureless
strength of the mastodon may be i'm
agined best when one thinks what