'MASTODON.
This is a new genus of quadrupeds, and hitherto un known in any except the fossil state. A general resem blance to the elephant has been the canse of its having been confounded with that animal in North America. Cu vier has determined that there are five species of this genus, and considers them to be all herbivorous.
It is the great mastodon of the Ohio that has been mis taken for a mammoth, and of which one tolerably perfect skeleton has been arranged. It abounds there, about the saline tract, or red marl stratum, called the Salt-lick, noted as well for the resort of living as for the remains of dead animals. American reports, which, unfortunately, do not often gain credit in Europe, even when well founded, have lately represented it as still existing in the interior country. This same species is proved, by some of its remains, to have also resided in Siberia.
The second species is distinguished by the comparative narrowness of its grinding teeth, and has been found in Europe as well as in America.
The third mastodon is still smaller than the preceding, as are the teeth; and it has been found in Saxony.
A fourth species was discovered in South America by Humboldt, on the Cordillera. The grinders of this species are square, and the discoverer considers that it must have been as large as the great Mastodon.
For the fifth or last species we are indebted to the same naturalist. It was found in the same country, and he also considers it as the smallest of the genus.
It was in 1712 that the first discovery of the great Mas todon was made. In 1740 the bones were found in great quantities in Kentucky ; and in 1765, so many were found in the same place that it was concluded there must have been at least thirty skeletons. These bones were about six feet beneath the surface. For a long time their nature ^cmained unknown, and a cause of much inquiry among European anatomists; and at that time specimens of teeth belonging to the same animal were found in Tartary and Siberia, and by Pallas in the Oural mountains. In 1799, so many bones were found near Newburgh, on the Hudson river, by Mr. Peale, that at length two skeletons were constructed, aided by artificial substitutes, formed upon the models of other analogous, or corresponding bones of different sizes.
According to Mr. Peale, the neck has only six verte brx, instead of seven, as in the elephant ; he never hav ing been able to procure a seventh. As nineteen dorsal vertebra?, and the same number of ribs, were found, it was concluded that one was wanting, and that the number was the same as in the elephant. There were three lumbar vertebrae. From the formation of the teeth, the disposition of the enamel, the incapacity of the jaw for lateral motion, and from the , condyloid process, which is finished by an oblong head being inserted into a transverse groove, it was concluded by him that this must have been a carni vorous animal. The teeth of the upper and lower jaws appear to have fitted into each other, and they must, con sequently, have been incapable of being used for the pur pose of trituration. Their roots are also divided, so that each has its own socket, whereas in the elephant they oc cupy one cavity.
In one specimen, some hair was found, which was long, coarse, and of a brown colour. Though these remains have been found on the banks of the Mississippi, the Mis souri, and the Ohio, they have never yet occurred farther north than Lake Erie. They have been discovered also on the eastern side of the Blue Mountains, the North Mountains, and the Alleghany ; as also in Pennsylvania, Carolina, and New Jersey. It appears that in one case the remains of a trunk was found.
Cuvier remarks of this animal, that the wearing down of some of the grinders would rather prove that they were used for triturating vegetable substances. There are three kinds of grinders, and he observes that they probably suc ceeded each other, as in the elephant ; an inattention to which circumstance has led to erroneous opinions respect ing its nature. This animal does not appear to have ex ceeded twelve feet in height, whereas it has been said that Asiatic elephants have sometimes been known to be fifteen. It does not seem to have had either canine or cutting teeth. No perfect specimen of the skull has been found; hut it is concluded that the eye must have been placed much higher than in the elephant, and that the head was proportionally longer. The tusks resembled those of the elephant ; and though Mr. Peale has thought fit to reverse their position, there is no reason for supposing that this was different from what it is in the elephant. There is no reason to doubt that it had a trunk.
The form of the vertebrae agrees, in general, with those of the elephant, but the hind ribs are shorter ; whence it is concluded that the abdomen was not so large in propor tion. The humerus is shorter, and the fore-arm longer in proportion than in that animal, and the pelvis is more de pressed, and with a narrower opening. The os femoris is of great thickness M. Cuvier concludes that this mastodon was about the height of the elephant, but longer, thicker in the limbs, and with a smaller belly. He also considers it to have been a terrestrial animal ; not living like the hip popotamus, but digging in the marshy plains which it in habited, for roots and soft vegetables.
mrpoPOTAM1:S.
Fossil remains of the hippopotamus occur in Italy, in the vale of the Arno, and in France, near Languedoc ; as also in England, where many of our fossil treasures are yet only in the act of being investigated. Among other places they have been found in Essex, and near Brentford, in the blue clay. Almost every year, indeed, adds some thing important to the list. There are two species; one of these equals in size the living species, there being only of this genus yet known, a native of Africa, and also of Sumatra. This is also, like the elephant, a herbivorous genus. The bones of one of the fossil species are so like those of the living one, that it is yet undetermined whether it is not probably the same creature. The other is not larger than a hog, and is perfectly well character ized, so that, if it still exists, it is in regions yet unknown to us.