Buffon gave the fossil the name of the _Animal or Elephant of the Ohio_,
but he deceived himself as to its size, believing it to be from six to
eight times the size of our existing Elephant; an estimate which he was
led to make by an erroneous notion with regard to the number of the
Elephant’s teeth. The _Animal of the Ohio_ had only four molars, while
Buffon imagined that it might have as many as sixteen, confounding the
germs, or supplementary teeth, which exist in the young animal, with the
permanent teeth of the adult individual. In reality, however, the
Mastodon was not much larger than the existing species of African
Elephant.
The discovery of this animal had produced a great impression in Europe.
Becoming masters of Canada by the peace of 1763, the English sought
eagerly for more of these precious remains. The geographer Croghan
traversed anew the region of the Great Salt Lake, pointed out by De
Longueil, and found there some bones of the same nature. In 1767 he
forwarded many cases to London, addressing them to divers naturalists.
Collinson, among others, the friend and correspondent of Franklin, who
had his share in this consignment, took the opportunity of sending a
molar tooth to Buffon.
[Illustration: Fig. 163.--Skeleton of Mastodon giganteus.]
It was not, however, till 1801 that the remains of the perfect skeleton
were discovered. An American naturalist, named Peale, was fortunate
enough to get together two nearly complete skeletons of this important
animal. Having been apprised that many large bones had been found in the
marly clay on the banks of the Hudson, near Newburg, in the State of New
York, Mr. Peale proceeded to that locality. In the spring of 1801 a
considerable part of one skeleton was found by the farmer who had dug it
out of the ground, but, unfortunately, it was much mutilated by his
awkwardness, and by the precipitancy of the workmen. Having purchased
these fragments, Mr. Peale sent them on to Philadelphia.
[Illustration: Fig. 164.--Mastodon restored.]
In a marsh, situated five leagues west of the Hudson, the same gentleman
discovered, six months after, a second skeleton of the Mastodon,
consisting of a perfect jaw and a great number of bones. With the bones
thus collected, the naturalist managed to construct two nearly complete
skeletons. One of these still remains in the Museum of Philadelphia; the
other was sent to London, where it was exhibited publicly.
[Illustration: Fig. 165.--Molar tooth of Mastodon.]
Discoveries nearly analogous to these followed, the most curious of
which was made in this manner by Mr. Barton, a Professor of the
University of Pennsylvania. At a depth of six feet in the ground, and
under a great bank of chalk, bones of the Mastodon were found sufficient
to form a skeleton. One of the teeth found weighed about seventeen
pounds (Fig. 165); but the circumstance which made this discovery the
more remarkable was, that in the middle of the bones, and enveloped in a
kind of sac which was probably the stomach of the animal, a mass of
vegetable matter was discovered, partly bruised, and composed of small
leaves and branches, among which a species of rush has been recognised
which is yet common in Virginia. We cannot doubt that these were the
undigested remains of the food, which the animal had browsed on just
before its death.
The aboriginal natives of North America called the Mastodon the _father
of the ox_. A French officer named Fabri wrote thus to Buffon in 1748.
The natives of Canada and Louisiana, where these remains are abundant,
speak of the Mastodon as a fantastic creature which mingles in all their
traditions and in their ancient national songs. Here is one of these
songs, which Fabri heard in Canada: “When the great _Manitou_ descended
to the earth, in order to satisfy himself that the creatures he had
created were happy, he interrogated all the animals. The bison replied
that he would be quite contented with his fate in the grassy meadows,
where the grass reached his belly, if he were not also compelled to keep
his eyes constantly turned towards the mountains to catch the first
sight of the _father of oxen_, as he descended, with fury, to devour
him and his companions.”
The Cheyenne Indians have a tradition that these great animals lived in
former times, conjointly with a race of men whose size was proportionate
to their own, but that the _Great Being_ destroyed both by repeated
strokes of his terrible thunderbolts.
The native Indians of Virginia had another legend. As these gigantic
Elephants destroyed all other animals specially created to supply the
wants of the Indians, God, the thunderer, destroyed them; a single one
only succeeded in escaping. It was “the great male, which presented its
head to the thunderbolts and shook them off as they fell; but being at
length wounded in the side, he took to flight towards the great lakes,
where he remains hidden to this day.” All these simple fictions prove,
at least, that the Mastodon has lived upon the earth at some not very
distant period. We shall see, in fact, that it was contemporaneous with
the Mammoth, which, it is now supposed, may have been co-existent with
the earlier races of mankind, or only preceded a little the appearance
of man.
Buffon, as we have said, gave to this great fossil animal the name of
the Elephant of the Ohio; it has also been called the Mammoth of the
Ohio. In England it was received with astonishment. Dr. Hunter showed
clearly enough, from the thigh-bone and the teeth, that it was no
Elephant; but having heard of the existence of the Siberian Mammoth, he
at once came to the conclusion that they were bones of that animal. He
then declared the teeth to be carnivorous, and the idea of a
_carnivorous elephant_ became one of the wonders of the day. Cuvier at
once dissipated the clouds of doubt which surrounded the subject,
pointing out the osteological differences between the several species,
and giving to the American animal the appropriate name of Mastodon (from
μαστος, _a teat_, and οδους, _a tooth_), or teat-like-toothed animal.
Many bones of the Mastodon have been found in America since that time,
but remains are rarely met with in Europe, except as fragments--as the
portion of a jaw-bone discovered in the Red Crag near Norwich, which
Professor Owen has named _Mastodon angustidens_. It was even thought,
for a long time, with Cuvier, that the Mastodon belonged exclusively to
the New World; but the discovery of many of the bones mixed with those
of the Mammoth, (_Elephas primigenius_) has dispelled that opinion.
Bones of Mastodon have been found in great numbers in the Val d’Arno. In
1858 a magnificent skeleton was discovered at Turin.
The form of the teeth of the Mastodon shows that it fed, like the
Elephant, on the roots and succulent parts of vegetables; and this is
confirmed by the curious discovery made in America by Barton. It lived,
no doubt, on the banks of rivers and on moist and marshy lands. Besides
the great Mastodon of which we have spoken, there existed a Mastodon
one-third smaller than the Elephant, and which inhabited nearly all
Europe.
There are some curious historical facts in connection with the remains
of the Mastodon which ought not to be passed over in silence. On the
11th of January, 1613, the workmen in a sand-pit situated near the
Castle of Chaumont, in Dauphiny, between the cities of Montricourt and
Saint-Antoine, on the left bank of the Rhône, found some bones, many of
which were broken up by them. These bones belonged to some great fossil
Mammal, but the existence of such animals was at that time wholly
unknown. Informed of the discovery, a country surgeon named Mazuyer
purchased the bones, and gave out that he had himself discovered them in
a tomb, thirty feet long by fifteen broad, built of bricks, upon which
he found the inscription TEUTOBOCCHUS REX. He added that, in the same
tomb, he found half a hundred medals bearing the effigy of Marius. This
Teutobocchus was a barbarian king, who invaded Gaul at the head of the
Cimbri, and who was vanquished near _Aquæ Sextiæ_ (Aix in Provence) by
Marius, who carried him to Rome to grace his triumphal procession. In
the notice which he published in confirmation of this story, Mazuyer
reminded the public that, according to the testimony of Roman authors,
the head of the Teuton king exceeded in dimensions all the trophies
borne upon the lances in the triumph. The skeleton which he exhibited
was five-and-twenty feet in length and ten broad.
Mazuyer showed the skeleton of the pretended Teutobocchus in all the
cities of France and Germany, and also to Louis XIII., who took great
interest in contemplating this marvel. It gave rise to a long
controversy, or rather an interminable dispute, in which the anatomist
Riolan distinguished himself--arguing against Habicot, a physician,
whose name is all but forgotten. Riolan attempted to prove that the
bones of the pretended king were those of an Elephant. Numerous
pamphlets were exchanged by the two adversaries, in support of their
respective opinions. We learn also from Gassendi, that a Jesuit of
Tournon, named Jacques Tissot, was the author of the notice published by
Mazuyer. Gassendi also proves that the pretended medals of Marius were
forgeries, on the ground that they bore Gothic characters. It seems very
strange that these bones, which are still preserved in the cases of the
Museum of Natural History in Paris, where anybody may see them, should
ever have been mistaken, for a single moment, for human remains. The
skeleton of Teutobocchus remained at Bordeaux till 1832, when it was
sent to the Museum of Natural History in Paris, where M. de Blainville
declared that it belonged to a Mastodon.
[Illustration: Fig. 166.--Skeleton of Mesopithecus.]
[Illustration: Fig. 167.--Mesopithecus restored. One-fifth natural
size.]
The Apes made their appearance at this period. In the ossiferous beds
of Sansan M. Lartet discovered the _Dryopithecus_, as well as _Pithecus
antiquus_, but only in imperfect fragments. M. Albert Gaudry was more
fortunate: in the Miocene rocks of Pikermi, in Greece, he discovered the
entire skeleton of _Mesopithecus_, which we present here (Fig. 166),
together with the same animal restored (Fig. 167). In its general
organisation it resembles the dog-faced baboon or ape, a piece of
information which has guided the artist in the restoration of the
animal.
* * * * *
The seas of the Miocene period were inhabited by great numbers of beings
altogether unknown in earlier formations; we may mention no less than
ninety marine genera which appear here for the first time, and some of
which have lived down to our epoch. Among these, the molluscous
Gasteropods, such as _Conus_, _Turbinella_, _Ranella_, _Murex_ (Fig.
169), and _Dolium_ are the most abundant; with many Lamellibranchiata.
[Illustration: Fig. 168.--Cerithium plicatum.]
[Illustration: Fig. 169.--Murex Turonensis.]
[Illustration: Fig. 170.--Ostrea longirostris. One quarter natural size.