TO DR. WISTAR.
Washington, February 3, 1801.
Dear Sir,—According to your desire I wrote to Chancellor Livingston on the subject of the bones. The following is an extract from his letter dated January 7th. "I have paid the earliest attention to your request relative to the bones found at Shawangun, and have this day written to a very intelligent friend in that neighborhood. I fear however that till they have finished their search, there will be some difficulty in procuring any part of the bones, because when I first heard of the discovery I made some attempts to possess myself of them, but found they were a kind of common property, the whole town having joined in digging for them till they were stopped by the autumnal rains. They entertain well-grounded hopes of discovering the whole skeleton, since these bones are not, like all those they have hitherto found in that county, placed within the vegetable world, but are covered with a stratum of clay,—that being sheltered from the air and water they are more perfectly preserved. Among the bones I have heard mentioned, are the vertebra, part of the jaw, with two of the grinders, the tusks, which some have called the horns, the sternum, the scapula, the tibia and fibula, the tarsus and metatarsus. Whether any of the phalanges or innominata are found, I have not heard. A part of the head, containing the socket of the tusks, is also discovered. From the bones of the feet, it is evidently a claw-footed animal, and from such parts of the shoulder bones as have been discovered, it appears that the arm or fore-leg, had a greater motion than can possibly belong to the elephant or any of the large quadrupeds with which we are acquainted. Since bog-earth has been used by the farmers of Ulster county for a manure, which is subsequent to the war, fragments of at least eight or ten have been found, but in a very decayed state in the same bog."
From this extract, and the circumstance that the bones belong to the town, you will be sensible of the difficulty of obtaining any considerable portion of them. I refer to yourself to consider whether it would not be better to select such only of which we have no specimens, and to ask them only. It is not unlikely they would with common consent yield a particular bone or bones, provided they may keep the mass for their own town. If you will make the selection and communicate it to me, I will forward it to the Chancellor, and the sooner the better.
Accept assurances of my high consideration and attachment.