DISCOVERY OF A MASTODON ASSOCIATED WITH HUMAN REMAINS.
A mastodon has been recently discovered in Ashtabula county, Ohio. On the 25th of April, Mr. E. Owen has engaged in ditching the farm of Mr. Boudinot Seeley, in Austinburg, Ashtabula county, O., when he suddenly came upon the bones of the animal. These were situated about three and a half feet below the surface, in the middle of a small swail or muck swamp, called by the farmers a “cat swamp.” The bones were lying below the swamp embedded in the clay, but projecting above it and partially contained in the muck. The bones consisted of the head, the atlas, twenty-five ribs, the scapula, several dorsal vertebrae, and three vertebrae of the coccyx, but no tusk or tooth or lower extremities. The measurements are as follows: Head, as found, length three feet nine inches, width two feet six inches. Ribs, smallest, length three feet one inch, width three and one-half inches. Ribs, largest, length four feet six inches, width six inches. Scapula, length three feet four inches, width two feet six inches. Socket of ditto, eight inches by five. Vertebrae, with the lateral process, two feet two inches, width thirteen inches. clay, at a depth of two and a half feet below the surface, and about fifty feet from the skeleton.
Fragments of charcoal were distributed through the upper soil, and some in the clay and near the bones. The bones themselves evidently were disturbed, as they were scattered over a distance of twenty or thirty feet, and were not in place. The search has not been completed, and it is believed that other traces of flint weapons and of fire may yet be discovered if a proper examination shall be made.
The location is about four miles from the upper part of the Lake Erie terrace formation, and about six miles from the present lakeshore. The soil is thick clay, is very level, and was formerly covered with heavy timber. The clay rests for the most part upon the Erie shale, through which the streams have worn deep gorges, especially as they come into the lake.
It is worthy of remark, that relics of the latest geological period are found in the terraces, as other fragments of bones of the mastodon and the remains of logs have been discovered in various places, situated low down in the gravel beds or embedded in the top of the clay.
This, however, is the only case where there are traces of the human epoch, either in the Tertiary, the Quaternary or in the terrace formations of this region.
