NATURAL

me a verbal account of their hav-
ing been brought from the banks
of the Ohio; and on the following
day fent me one tulk and one grin-
der, as fpecimens for my examina-
tion. The talk, indeed, feemed fo
like that of an elephant, that
there appeared no room for doubt.
I lhewed it to my brother, and he
thought f0 too: but, being parti-
cularly converfant with comparative
anatomy, at firll: fight he told me
the grinder was not an elephant’s.
From the form of the knobs on the
body of the grinder, and from the
difpnfition of the enamel, which
makes a crufi on the outfide only
of the tooth, as in a human grinder,
he was convinced that the animal
was either carnivorous, or of a
mixed kind. This made me think
that the tulk itleli was not a real
elephant’s tooth: for Mr. Boding-
ton had told me, that there were
many grinders, as well as tufks,
and that they were all fimilar to
thofe fpecimens which he had fent
to me. And fome time after, when
I went to the Tower, and examined
the whole collection which had been
fent over from the Ohio, L faw that
the grinders were all of the fame
kind. I examined two elephant’s
jaws in my brother’s collection:
I examined the tulks and grinders
of the queen’s two elephants: and
I examined a great number ofAfri-
can elephants teeth at a warehoufe.
From all thefe obfervations l was
convinced that the grinder tooth,
brought from the Ohio, was not
that of an elephant; but of fome
carnivorous animal, larger than an
ordinary elephant ; and I could not
dnltbt that the tulk belonged to the
fame animal. The only difFerence
that I could obfervebetiveen it

HISTORY. 73

and a real elephanfis tulk was, that
it was more twilied, or had more
of the (piral curve, than any of the
elephants teeth which I had feen.

Some time after this Dr. Frank-
lin received a. large box of the
fame fort of bones lrorn the Ohio,
by the way of Philadelphia. He
informed me of this, and told me
likewife that another large box of
thofe bones was lent to the earl of
Shelburne, one of his majcfifs fe-
cretaries of llzate. l waited upon
Dr. Franklin, with fome other
friends, and found the bones to be
entaétly fuch as I had teen; and
was, therefore, confirmed in my
former opinion.

Then I waited upon Lord Shel-
burne, and was permitted to exa...
mine the bones which he had re-
ceived. Befides the tufks and grin-
ders, which were all fuch as I had
feen, and fiill ferved to confirm me
in my opinion, there was the half
of the lower jaw of the animal,
with one large grinder fiill fixed in
it. This jaw-bone was {o difiFerent
from that of an elephant, both in
form and in fize, and correlponded
f0 exaélly with the other bones, and
with my fuppofition, that I was new
fully convinced, that the fuppofed.
American elephant was an animal
of another Tpecies, a p/kud-e/tp/Jaa-r,
or anir/zal incognitum, which natura-
lills were unacquainted with. I
imagined farther, that this animal
inragninmz would prove to be the
fuppofed elephant of Siberia, and
other parts of Europe; and that
the real elephant would be found to
have been in all ages a native of
Alia and Africa only.

The earl of Shelburne, from his
love of natural knowledge, [hewcd
a delire tha: the enqhiry might be

. carried