The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-05-10


 curately being fitted into one another al
 Wards natural science establishment ir
 this city, where a mammoth or a mas
 todon Is such a commonplace sort of a thing that it is treated with little re-
 spect even when its venerable dignity
 weighs in the balance.
 This mastodon was discovered by a
 gardener near Newark last Spring. He
 was turning over his garden patch with
 a spade one morning and nearly tainted when it struck a bone so huge that it 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 col
 umns, with pictures of it feeding placid
 ly or waging combat fiercely with a
 rival. These same newspapers made
 guesses as to the value of the skeleton.
 The average price was decided to be
 O,00O The market gardener at once l began to build an extensive addition to
 his house. The real price did not reach
 one-twentieth of that amount The
 bones were bid in. by the Brooklyn h.
 stitute of Arts and Sciences. The Ward
 establishment received the order for
 their mounting It will be completed | along In June. The mastodon and the | Tissot pictures may be gazed upon in
 the same visit to the Brooklyn Institute.
 They will not, however, occupy the same | room.
 | It is quite likely that In the imagina- | tion of the great majority a mammoth and a lnastodon are two names for the | same beast. Both are huge, both exist | edin prehistoric days and both are pie
 tured in encyclopedias and stand in
 rickety grandeur in museums, But the | two are alike only In form and mass. l The mastodon Is an earlier animal than | the mammoth, although a relative by distant ties of consanguinity. Out
 wardly they are much alike The mod ern elephant is pretty fair representa- ! tive of them. If he could be covered with curly hair, wear tusks curved like hooks and range oyer the State of New
 York and the city of Rochester in care less ease, the elephant would be exceed iDgly like his prototype of ROO centuries ago. In point of fact. he is the modern representative of the mammoth. If 1t
 were not for his teeth, he might be like wise close relative of the mastodon
 But the teeth break the chain.
 A mammoth's teeth and an elephants teeth are almost exactly alike They are flat and oval on top. The grinding surfaces are crossed by parallel ridges of enamel which, when a longitudinal section Is made, give to the upper edge q slight wavy outline. The mastodon's teeth are totally unlike this. He won his name from their peculiar shape. It comes from two Creek words, "mastos," beast, and "odous.' tooth. This means that the molars of the mastodon are shaped like the beast with conical knob by caps, which stick up two inches or so from the base of the tooth. Besides this, the mastodons tusks, simply elon- gated incisors, are atraighter than the mammoth's.
 The remains of the. mastodon are found In nearly all parts of the globe. He used to roam over the forests. crash ing in among the dense foliage, feeding in solitary massiveness or fighting until the ground quivered with his plunges. The very weight of the huge creature often proved his ruin Wandering into NN'i'N ii''A'iiS piu1C, Ht Npulu DbcOfIlc mired and slowly sink in helplessness until the ooze closed over him, to remain hidden from ken for 5000 years. when chance>should uncover his mighty bones to human sight.
 The skeleton of this Newark mastodon is unusually complete The vertebrae, great rngeshaped bones With long di- vergent spikes which held the huge mus. cles that supported the ttisks, were al- most all present The tail, which looks like full grown alligator, was perfect The pelvis, eight or nine feet from edge to edge. the skull tooth and tusks were in singularly complete state of pre- servation The legs were missing and will have to be supplied by the moun- ters. This, however, is not SO difficult Leg bones of the mastodon are fre- quently found and from them may be taken plaster casts, which when made up are so like the real bones that an ex- pert 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 hun dred pounds in weight. The measure. less strength of the mastodon may be imagined best when one thinks what power he must have possessed simply to carry himself
 The mounting of the skeleton Is slowly progressing. The vertebrae and ribs are strung upon heavy iron bar; bent to match the curves of the great back. As the legless barrel hangs from the ceiling by chains and tackle, 1t looks like the inverted keel and ribs of a broad-beam- ed catboat in process of construction
 Among the most interesting parts, of this huge skeleton are the first few yer tebrae of the spinal column, just back of the base of the skull and neck. Their diameter Is nearly foot From the top rise spiky projections as long again, whose tops make an undulating curve not unlike the top of a harp Farther back these pojecting bones become shorter and shorter. Now, between the l tallest of these spikes and the base of | the skull is dip perhaps two feet down. | This was filled with thick muscles and l tendons. Their ends were welded into l the spikes so firmly that the upper part of the bones is rugged as the broken end | of wrought Iron columns These im- | mense muscles were needed to support | the great weight of the tusks. which. | when their own mass and the leverage | caused by their jutting length are taken | into considerations needed all the |