Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 68.djvu/385

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The history of the 'Warren Mastodon.' found near Newburgh, N. Y., is briefly as follows: In the very dry summer of 1845 diggers in a swamp, the bottom of which had never been seen above water, came upon the head two or three feet below the surface towards evening on August 12. The next day they unearthed the head and then, working backwards, the spine and ribs with the pelvis. While the head was being raised, one tusk parted near the middle and the other cracked at about a similar point, but did not then come to pieces. The feet of the hind legs were found near the shoulders (Fig. 2), showing clearly that the animal had been mired. On the second night the walls of the excavation caved in, covering and disturbing the unearthed parts. This is probably the reason that the end of the tail and many of the last phalanges are missing. Fig. 2 is a photograph of the vignette in Dr. Warren's monograph. Beside giving a view of the country it represents diagrammatically the geological formation. The tree is growing on the very edge of the section. Just below it is a dark layer of peat, followed by a shallower layer of red moss. Then comes one of shell marl in which reposed the more superficial part of the body and the right fore-limb. The rest lay in mud, apparently contained in a cavity formed by clay, which in the diagram descends obliquely on the reader's right. The skeleton was mounted after a fashion and exhibited about the country for some months, when it was purchased by Dr. Warren and mounted anew by Dr. N. B. Shurtleff. The great tusks were unable to support themselves and were replaced by imitation ones, the fragments being preserved. The small tusk of the lower jaw was preserved also, and it is hoped will be found in some safe place in the museum, but its whereabouts is at present unknown. Many, if not all of the terminal phalanges and perhaps a yard of the tail are false, as is also a part of the breastbone, which was broken, probably by the cave-in. Otherwise the skeleton is perfect and the finest in existence. The skeleton of the