It is generally supposed that the occurrence of elephantine remains in miry bogs indicates the mode of death of these ponderous quadrupeds. It may be doubted, however, whether their occurrence exclusively in peat, or beneath it, is not attributable to the antiseptic properties of that substance.
The bog in which the present remains were found, is perfectly identical with thousands of others in our State, which are known, from observation, to be in process of formation in the sites of ancient lakelets, and at a rate which argues a comparatively short duration for the alluvial period of the State. Indeed, the watery and shaking condition of this bog, with the thinness of the peaty stratum, furnish data for the belief that it was the bed of a lakelet within a comparatively short period. It is much more credible that the Mastodon under consideration was living within 500 or 1000 years, than that an interval of time, greater than the age of the human race, has been occupied in the accumulation of two or three feet of vegetable deposits, under circumstances which suffer the same work to be accomplished, in neighboring localities, within the space of a human life-time. It is more than probable that the American Indian, according to his own traditions, and according to the evidences adduced by Dr. Koch, has listened to the thunder-waking tread of these monsters of the forest and the field.
Other mastodon remains have been found at various points within the lower peninsula of Michigan, some of which are Petersburg, Monroe county; the city of Adrian, Lenawee county; Utica, Macomb county; Green Oak, Livingston county; Fentonville, Oakland county; and Terre Coupée, Berrien county. (See Proc. Bos. Soc. Nat. Hist., v, 133, 146, 158.) The localities of several other discoveries have been lost. The molar teeth of Elephas Jacksoni are also of occasional occurrence, in the same situations; as well as the antlers of the deer and American elk. Some years ago, the caudal vertebra of a Cetacean was identified by Dr. Sager from the western portion of the State.
The remains of the Mastodon noticed above will probably be secured for the Museum of the University, when an occasion may be furnished for a fuller account of the fossil mammals of Michigan.
