In the year 1845 there was found, at Newburg, on the Hudson, the largest perfect skeleton of a mastodon which has yet been exhumed on this continent. The summer had been exceedingly hot and dry. Many small lacustrine deposits had been exposed by the drought, and the farmers had industriously seized upon the opportunity to remove these rich beds of fertility to their tillage-lands and fields.
The drought at last laid bare one of these deposits in a bog on the farm of Mr. N. Brewster, a spot that had never been known to become dry before. Mr. Brewster at once summoned his men to remove the deposit, as rapidly as possible, to his fields and farm-yards. One day, toward evening, in the latter part of summer, these laborers struck a hard substance. Some said it was "a rock;" others, a "log;" others, jestingly, "a mammoth."
Early the next morning, Mr. Brewster went with his laborers to the field, and found the supposed rock or log to be an immense bone. The men began digging, full of eager curiosity, and exposed to view the massive skull and long white tusks of a mastodon. These tusks were of such immense size and length as to cause the most wonderful reports to go flying about the neighborhood, and to draw the good people of Newburg in crowds to the place. It was soon discovered that the perfect skeleton of a mastodon was embedded in the peat. Sheer-poles and tackles were obtained, and, amid excitement, cheering, and many cautions, the bones of the monster were raised from the bed where they had lain no one can tell how many thousand years.
Two days were occupied in these interesting labors. The relics drew to them an immense number of people from the surrounding country. Beneath the pelvic bones of this mastodon were found five or six bushels of broken twigs, which evidently had constituted the animal's last meal. He had undoubtedly been mired while attempting to cross this bog, and in this manner perished. These twigs were from one-quarter to three-eighths of an inch in diameter, and a little more than an inch in length. They were supposed to belong to the willow, linden, and maple trees.
It is impossible to conjecture how many years ago this creature may have lived. What marvelous scenes must have passed before its eyes in its wanderings! What gigantic forests; what noble watercourses; what luxurious vegetation; what strange animals may have been its companions—species that passed away long before civilization brought its destructive weapons to the Western shores! Was man, too, its contemporary; if so, how humiliating to intellectual pride is the oblivion that consigns to conjecture and mystery so large a portion of the human race!
