The world is now in possession of two undisputed skeletons of this animal, found in such situations as leave no room for conjecture; each skeleton being dug up in a separate place, without any intermixture of foreign bones, and each bone exactly adapted to its corresponding points of articulation. One of these skeletons is erected as a permanent establishment at the Museum, Philadelphia; the other I have brought with me, with an intention to travel through Europe, beginning with the metropolis of England.
I shall here give a short account of the place and manner of finding these.
In the spring of 1801, having heard that in the fall of 1799 many bones of this animal had been found in the state of New York, in the vicinity of Newburgh, which is situated on the Hudson or North River, about sixty-seven miles from the capital, my father, C. W. Peale, immediately proceeded to the spot, and through the politeness of Dr. Graham, who lived in the neighbourhood, and had been present when most of the bones were dug up, received every information with respect to what had been done, and the most probable means of future success. The bones that had been found were then in the possession of the farmer who owned the land, heaped together on the floor of his garret, where they were occasionally visited by the curious.
These my father was fortunate to make a purchase of, together with the right of digging up the remainder; and immediately packing them up, sent them on to Philadelphia: They consisted of all the neck, most of the vertebræ of the back, and some of the tail; most of the ribs, in greater part broken; both scapulæ; both humeri, with the radii and ulnæ; one femur; a tibia of one leg, and a fibula of the other; some large fragments of the head; many of the fore and hind feet bones; the pelvis somewhat broken; and a large fragment, five feet long, of the left tusk, about mid way. He therefore was in want of some of the back and tail bones, some of the ribs, the under jaw, one whole tusk and part of the other, the breast-bone, one thigh, and a tibia and fibula, and many of the feet bones. But as the farmer’s fields were then in grain, the enterprize of searching for the remainder was postponed for a short time. Two or three weeks were spent in mending such bones as were broken, and arranging the whole; but the deficiencies were such, that very few of them could be put together.
Not willing to lose the advantage of the dry season, when the springs in the morass of course were low, we proceeded on the arduous enterprize. In New York every article was provided which might be necessary in surmounting expected difficulties; such as a pump, ropes, pullies, augers, &c.; boards and plank were provided in the neighbourhood, and timber was in sufficient plenty on the spot.
The whole of this part of the country abounding with morasses, it is the custom of the farmers to assist each other in turns with personal or specific labour, each man giving a route or frolick on the occasion, in order to obtain a large quantity of their contents for manure. Pits are dug generally twelve feet long and five feet wide. It was in digging one of these, on the farm of Mr. Masten, that one of the men, in thrusting his spade deeper than usual, struck something which he imagined to be a log of wood, but on cutting it to ascertain the kind, it was perceived to be bone: it was quickly cleared from the surrounding earth, and proved to be that of the thigh, three feet nine inches in length, and eighteen inches in circumference in the smallest part. The search was continued, and the same evening several other bones were discovered. The fame of it soon spread through the neighbourhood, and excited a general interest in the pursuit; and all were eager, at the expence of some exertions, to gratify their curiosity, to see the ruins of an animal so gigantic, of which few among them had ever heard. For the two succeeding days upwards of an hundred men were actively engaged, encouraged by several gentlemen, chiefly physicians, of the neighbourhood, and success the most sanguine attended their labours; but unfortunately the habits of the men requiring the use of spirits, it was afforded them in too great profusion, and they quickly became so impatient and unruly that they had nearly destroyed the skeleton; in one or two instances using oxen and chains to drag them from the clay, the head, hips, and tusk, were much broken; some parts being drawn out and others left behind. So great a quantity of water, from springs in the bottom of the pit, rose upon the men, that it required several score of hands to lade it out with all the buckets they could collect in the neighbourhood. All their ingenuity was exerted to overcome difficulties that every hour increased upon their hands; they even made and sunk a large coffer-dam, and within it found many valuable small bones. The fourth day so much water had risen in the pit, that they had not courage to attack it again. In this state we found it in 1801.
Confident that nothing could be done without having a perfect command of the water, the first idea was to drain it by a ditch; but the necessary distance of perhaps half a mile, presented a length of labour that appeared immense. It was therefore resolved to throw the water into a natural bason about sixty feet distant, the upper edge of which was about ten feet above the level of the water. An ingenious millwright constructed the machinery; and after a week of close labour, completed a large scaffolding and a wheel twenty feet diameter, wide enough for three or four men to walk abreast in: a rope round this turned a small spindle, which worked a chain of buckets regulated by a floating cylinder; the water emptied into a trough which conveyed it to the bason; a ship’s pump assisted, and towards the latter part of the operation, a pair of half barrels in removing the mud. The second day the water was lowered so that they began to dig, and in a few hours were rewarded with several small bones.
Every farmer with his wife and children, for twenty miles round in every direction, with waggons, carriages, and horses, flocked to see the operation; and a swamp always noted for being the solitary and dismal abode of snakes and frogs, became the active scene of curiosity and bustle; the greater part astonished at the whim of an old man in travelling two hundred miles from his home, to dig up as a treasure, at incredible risk, labour, and expence, a pile of bones, which, although all were astonished to see, many imagined fit for nothing better than to rot and serve for manure.
For several weeks no exertions were spared, and those the most unremitting were required to insure success; bank after bank fell in; the increase of water was a constant impediment, the extreme coldness of which benumbed the workmen: Every day bones and pieces of bones were found between six and seven feet deep, but none of the most important ones. But the greatest obstacle to the search was occasioned by the shell marle which formed the lower stratum; this, rendered thin by the springs at the bottom, and by the weight of the whole morass, always pressed upwards on the workmen to a certain height; which, without an incalculable expence, it was impossible to prevent. Twenty-five hands, at high wages, were almost constantly employed at work so uncomfortable and severe, that nothing but their anxiety to see the head, and particularly the under jaw, could have kept up their resolution. The patience of employer and workmen was at length exhausted, and the work relinquished without obtaining those interesting parts without which it was impossible to form a skeleton.