From the great number of bones and teeth of animals of the extinct elephantine genus, to which the name of Mastodon was given by Cuvier (from the structure of the crowns of the teeth), that have of late years been brought to England, and are dispersed in our public and private collections, the intelligent reader must be familiar with the forms, characters, and gigantic proportions, of that stupendous tribe of animals which once ranged through the primeval forests not only of America, but also of some parts of Europe. From a perfect skeleton lately set up in the British Museum (in the same room with that of the Megatherium), a correct idea may be obtained of this peculiar type of mammalian structure. From this specimen it appears that the great Mastodon of the Ohio was not unlike the elephant In its general outline, though somewhat longer and thicker. It had a trunk or proboscis, tusks which curved upward, and four molar teeth in each jaw, but no incisors. But another remarkable peculiarity, and which entirely separates the Mastodon from the Elephant, is that the young animal had a pair of tusks, placed horizontally in the lower jaw, and of these tusks one only became developed, and that in the adult male: both were early shed in the female. In the midst of a collection of Mastodon bones imbedded in mud, a mass of small branches, grass, and leaves, in a half bruised state, and a species of reed common in Virginia, were discovered; the whole appeared to have been enveloped in a sac, probably the stomach of the animal. In another instance traces of the proboscis were observed. The tusks are composed of ivory, and vary somewhat in the direction and degree of their curvature. The bones of this colossal quadruped are found remarkably fresh and well preserved, and are generally impregnated with iron. No living instance of this creature is on record, and there can be no doubt that its race has long since been extinct.
"Big-bone Lick, where so many remains of the Mastodon and other extinct quadrupeds have been dug up, is distant from Cincinnati about twenty-three miles in a south-west direction. This celebrated bog is situated in a nearly level plain, in a valley bounded by gentle slopes, which lead up to flat table-lands composed of blue argillaceous (Silurian) limestone, and marl. The general course of the meandering stream which flows through the plain, is from east to west. There are two springs on the southern or left bank, rising from marshes, and two on the opposite bank; the most western of which, called the Gum Lick, is at the point where a small tributary joins the principal stream. The quaking bogs on this side are now more than fifteen acres in extent; but all the marshes were formerly larger, before the surrounding forest was partially cleared away. Within the memory of persons now living, the wild bisons or buffaloes crowded to these springs; but they have retreated many years, and are now as unknown to the inhabitants as the Mastodon itself. The bog in the spots where the salt springs rise is so soft, that a pole may be forced down into it many yards perpendicularly.
"The greater numbers both of the entire skeletons and the separate bones have been taken up from black mud, about twelve feet below the level of the Creek. It is supposed that the bones of the mastodons found here could not have belonged to less than one hundred individuals: those of the fossil Elephant (Elephas primigenius) to twenty; besides which a few bones of the Megalonyx, and of a species of stag, horse, and bison, are stated to have been collected. The greatest depth of the black mud has not been ascertained; it is composed chiefly of clay, with a mixture of calcareous matter and sand, and contains 5 parts in 100 of sulphate of lime, with some animal matter. Layers of gravel occur in the midst of it at various depths. It contains remains of seeds, and of several species and genera of fresh-water and terrestrial shells. It is impossible to view this plain without at once concluding that it has remained unchanged in all its principal features, from the period when the extinct quadrupeds inhabited the banks of the Ohio and its tributaries.
"There are two buffalo paths or trails still extant in the woods, and both lead directly to springs: the one which strikes off in a northerly direction from the Gum Lick, may be traced eastward through the forest for several miles. It is three or four yards wide, and only partially overgrown with grass, and sixty years ago was as bare, hard, and well trodden, as a high road. It is well known that during great droughts in the Pampas of South America, the horses, deer, and cattle, throng to the rivers in such numbers, that the foremost of the crowd are pushed into the stream by the pressure of others behind, and are sometimes carried away by thousands, and drowned. In their eagerness to drink the saline waters and lick the salt, the heavy mastodons and elephants seem in like manner to have pressed upon each other, and sunk in the soft quagmires of Kentucky."[79]
[79] Extracted from Sir Charles Lyell's "Travels in North America," vol. ii. chap. xvii. 1845.