later was presented on the Baron's return to France to the National Museum.[1]
With the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, Peale had more intercourse than with any other institution in Europe. This began when the museum in Philadelphia was very young, by the arrival in Philadelphia of the naturalist, Baron Palisot de Beauvois, a refugee from the terrible massacre at St. Domingo. For the short time that he was in Philadelphia, Beauvois aided Peale in many ways. Not only did he help Peale in identifying the specimens,[2] but he also wrote the French edition of the catalogue; and Peale in turn aided him by furnishing him with many letters of introduction whenever he went on collecting trips into other states. A personal friendship sprang up which lasted till Beauvois' death in 1820, and it is in Peak's letters to Beauvois after the latter^ return to France that one finds the best account of what was going on in Philadelphia. With respect to the museum, Peale was in correspondence with Geffroy St. Hilaire and with Cuvier, also receiving letters from Lamarck. With all these connections joining the museum to France it was not strange that the French influence was strong.
The Mastodon
The feat which was Peale's greatest achievement in connection with the museum was the recovery and reconstruction of the skeleton of a mastodon. In the spring of 1801, receiving information from a scientific correspondent in the state of New York that the bones of a mammoth had been found in digging a marl pit near Newburg, Peale hastened to the spot; and, after bargaining with Mr. Masten, who owned the farm on which the bones were found, he finally paid $300 for those bones that had already been procured and the right to drain and excavate the morass to recover if possible the rest of the skeleton. On Mr. Masten showing Peale the spot where the bones were found, which was a spacious hole filled with water, he wrote in his autobiography:
The pleasure which I felt at seeing the place, where I supposed my great treasure lay, almost tempted me to strip off my clothes and dive to the bottom and try to feel for bones. The hope, however, of returning soon with the means of emptying the pond satisfied me.
He went at once to New York. Through President Jefferson he was able to borrow pumps from the Navy Department and other things from the War Office. The Philosophical Society advanced him $500 without interest, with his house in Philadelphia as security. He then returned to the scene of operation with his son Rembrandt. After
