p. 166 | THE MASTODON by Adolphus Smith

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · May 4, 1876

THE MASTODON

By Adolphus Smith

Curiosities.

THE MASTODON.

Recently, at Circleville, N. Y., were found the bones of a mastodon whose dimensions were estimated from known data to be, length, twenty-four feet; height, eleven feet; girth, seventeen feet, and diameter of fore foot, two feet.

This animal is a member of an extinct species; and the question of interest is, in what period of the world did he exist, and how came he in the place where his remains were found?

The forms of several parts of this monster were traceable in the plastic mould in which he was found embedded. It is evident from this fact that the deposit must have been made before decomposition had so far advanced as to cause a malformation of his members. This deposit, moreover, must have been made by the action of water, and the inundation must have caused the death of the animal.

Many individuals of this species have been found in different places, superficially imbedded in the earth; and since none are living at the present time, they must all have been swept away, not by a sectional calamity, but by one that was general and complete; otherwise there is no good reason why individuals of this species should not be found living upon the earth with other species which still exist.

That they existed, however, with man upon the earth, is evident from the fact that wounds from arrow heads and other stone implements have been found upon the bones of a few individuals.

Admit the Bible account of the deluge, and all is made plain; but deny it, as geologists generally do, and admit the hypothesis of evolution, which compels us to look to a long-continued pre-Adamic state of the earth for an elucidation of the question, and mysticism and uncertainty are thrown over the past.

LARGE BONES.

Many years ago a friend of mine dug into a mound near the Genesee river, N. Y., and discovered therein human bones of very large size—a jaw bone that would embrace his own, and a thigh bone, that, when placed beside his own thigh (he was a tall man), extended about four inches beyond his knee. By scraping the soil carefully the forms of fingers and other parts of the body could be traced in the mound. When were these giant bones clothed with flesh and animated with the breath of life?

ANCIENT POTTERY.

Recently, at Hudsonville, Mich., Bro. Dean of that place found, in an excavation, a piece of pottery spherical in form, and of about three gallons capacity. I saw the place where it had been imbedded—a section of its form could be seen in the bank of the excavation.

I examined a piece of this pottery, and found its consistency to be coarse sand and clay, and its thickness about one-fourth of an inch.

From its appearance I judged that it had been used as a seething pot. As I broke these pieces and examined their edges, I thought of the many hundred years, perhaps thousands, that had passed since the hands that formed this vessel had been mouldering in the earth, to awake no more till the last trumpet shall re-animate his dust; and of his contemporary people, joyous or sorrowful in all the experience of human life, from the cradle to the grave. Who can tell when they existed, or what their future destiny may be when the grave shall give up its dead?

ADOLPHUS SMITH.