Year: 1866

oughly aroused by the recent discoveries in


the domain Of natural history at Cohoes,the


manufacturing village immediatel y adjacent


TO this city. During the process OF an ex-
cavation some weeks since, on the site OF


mill to be newly erected, mammoth jaw
bone was found about one hundred feet from


the banks of the Moha wk river, embedded


at distance of sixty-live feet below the


surface of the earth, and being taken up, at


once excited the attention Of the naturaiists


not only in this vicinity, but likewise far


and wide The length of the jaw was thir-


ty-two inches, twenty inches in width, and


weighed somewhat more than forty-six


pounds.


On Thursday last the remains of COM


plete skeleton Of huge mastodon were dis
covered eighteen feet further down in the


same excavation, and the attendant natur-


alists of Yale and Union colleges and the


Rensselaer, POLYTECHNIC institute Of this city,


are fully confirmed in the opinion that the


frame can yet be made quite perfect. The


remains have been carefully gathered to-


gether in the mill of the Harmony company,


cleaned and oiled. and it is expected that
they will be viewed and pronounced upon


during the coming week by Professor Louis
Agassiz the learned naturalist and savan


Of Harvard University The jaw of the


mastodon is four feet nine inches in length
from the mouth to the Uranium, to which
! portion of the backbone and Jaw are still


connected. The Uranium rises very like


that of an elephant. The two tusks each


measure eight feet IN length and their true


position is well marked on the upper jaw


The hip bone is five feet long, and weighs


one hundred pounds, while the shoulder


blades measure ten feet nine inches, and


weigh about fifty pounds each. The under
jaw already alluded to as having been found
some weeks since, precisely fits the upper
jaw now exhumed, and the ribs are found


to be four and half feet in length, and, as


before stated, the fosslists are of the opin-
ion that the completed frame will form a
most essential and grave contribution to
the science Of natural history


| The measurements show that the animal
must have stood at least fifteen feet in
| height, and have been little upwards Of
| fifty feet in length, Independent Of the tusks
already stated to be each eight feet in length
| Professor Marsh, of Yale College Scientific
School, gives it as his we'll grounded opin-
! ion that the remains discovered are those
of great North American Mastodon, com
pairing in all its parts fully with the descrip-
ton Of the animal given in the scientific
works, as follows "The animal has the
vaulted and cellular skull of the elephant,
with large tusks in the upper jaw and hea,
Wy form. From the character of the nasal
| bones and the shortness Of the head and
neck it has been concluded that it had
! trunk"


Whenever similar remains have been
! discovered on this continent the fact has
never failed to awaken the deepest interest,
not only in this country but in Europe
Fragments were first discovered as early
as the year 1905, and in 1901 the first com
para lively complete skeleton of a mastedon
was found somewhere in Orange county, |
am told, and Immediately transported to
London, returned and kept on exhibition in
Philadelphia for some years. Dr.Warren, of
Harvard College, is said to be III possession
OF a large part Of another frame, and in
lS45 it is stated that large and valuable
collection Of mastodon bones were found on
the banks of the Mississippi river, and hav-
ing been wired together were exhibited
through the country and in London as the
great Missouram. Harvard University is
also III possession of mastodon skeleton
independent Of that belonging to Dr. War
rem, and it is alleged that specimens of the
primeval species have been found in sever
al Of the States, but in no instance anything
| like as perfect as the one now developed at
COhoeS. Scientific Investigations upon this
controverted subject have been widely ex-
tended and marked by great industry and
as this event shows, they have been char
acterized by much success and truthful
ness.


One author says "The food of the mas
todon was entirely vegetable, as is proved
by the remains Of twigs of cOniferous trees,
and other vegetable matter found between
the ribs, and the animal was doubtless fond
of resorting to marshy or boggy places in
search Of succulcnt plants, where it was
often in the very places where the remains
have been extracted during the nineteenth
century" Another writer remarks "The
geological position Of the remains of this
species (mastodon) has long been and still
is subject of dispute among geologists
in a few instances they are said to have
been found below the drift, in the pliocene,
and even in the miocene but they have
generally been obtained from the post pito-
Gene or alIuvial formations at a depth of
five to ten feet, in lacustral deposit, bogs
and beds Of infusorial earth. Some have
thought that the mastoylons became extinct
since the advent Of man on the earth Ac-
cording to Lyel the period of the destruc-
ton, though geologically modern, must
have been many thousand years ago. The
same causes probably acted in their extinct
ion, as III the case of the fossil elephant,
perhaps partly climatic changes, or more
probably, some great convulsion on the sur
face of the globe at an epoch anterior to
man." A distinguished natural historian
says: Gone of the principal deposits of
mastodon bones appears to have been the
Big Bone Lick in the north part of Kentuc-
ky, near the Ohio, whence the mastodon
has been called the animal of the Ohio'-
None of the remains have the appearance
of having been rolled, but seem to have
been removed since the death of the animal
and it is worthy of remark that those which
were found at the river of the Great Usage,
which runs into the Missouri little above
its confluence with the Mississippi, were in a
vertical positions as if the animals had been
houUpd or buriad in the soil -