Mastodon

We cannot, without disrespect to the memory of a lost but giant race, and slighting the wide-spread reputation of old Orange as the mother of the most perfect and magnificent specimens of terrestrial animals, omit to tell of the Mastodon. Contemplating his remains as exhumed from their resting place for unknown ages, we instinctively think of his great power and lordly mastery over the beasts—of his majestic tread as he strode these vallies and hill-tops——of his anger when excited to fury—stamping the earth till trembling beneath his feet—snuffing the wind with disdain, and uttering his wrath in tones of thunder,—and the mind quails beneath the oppressive grandeur of the thought, and we feel as if driven along by the violence of a tornado. When the pressure of contemplation has subsided and we recovered from the blast, we move along and ponder on the time when the Mastodon lived,—when and how he died, and the nature of the catastrophe that extinguished the race; and the mind again becomes bewildered and lost in the uncertainty of the cause. Speculation is at fault, and our thoughts wander about among the possible accidents and physical agents which might have worked the sudden or lingering death of this line of terrestrial monarchs.

Upon these subjects, wrapt in the deep mystery of many ages, we have no fixed or well-considered theory; and if we had, the limits of our paper would forbid us to argue it up before our readers, and argue down all hostile ones. But we may briefly enquire, whether the cause of the death and utter annihilation of the race, was one great overwhelming flood which submerged the earth and swept down these animals as they peacefully and unsuspiciously wandered over the plains and hills around us. Or was it some earthquake convulsion, full of sudden wrath, which tore up its strong foundations and buried this race among the uplifted and subsiding mass of ruins; or was it some unusual storm, black with fury and terrible as the tornado, which swept the wide borders of these grounds, and carried tree and rock and living Mastodon in one unbroken stream to a common grave? or was it the common fate of nations, men and every race of created animals of water, land or air, which overlook and laid the giants low? that by the physical law of their nature, the decree of heaven, the race started into being—grew up to physical perfection,—and having fulfilled the purpose assigned by their creation, by a decrease slow, but sure as their increase, degenerated in number, and gradually died away and became extinct. Or was it some malignant distemper, fatal as the Egyptian marrain, which attacked the herd in every locality of this wide domain—sending its burning poison to their very vitals—forcing them to allay an insatiate thirst and seek relief in the water ponds around them, and there drank, and drank, and died? Or was it rather, as is the general belief in this community, that individual accident, numerous as the race, befell each one, and in the throes of extrication sank deep and deeper still in the soft and miry beds where we now find their bones reposing?

We have thus briefly laid before our readers all the causes which we have heard assigned for this remarkable, ancient and wide-spread catastrophe, and leave them to the speculation of others, while we wait for time and the developments of geology to uncover the cause.

667th

Table of Contents Mastodon Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Orange County AHGP/ALHN New York AHGP/ALHN AHGP ALHN	History of Orange County
	Mastodon We cannot, without disrespect to the memory of a lost but giant race, and slighting the wide-spread reputation of old Orange as the mother of the most perfect and magnificent specimens of terrestrial animals, omit to tell of the Mastodon. Contemplating his remains as exhumed from their resting place for unknown ages, we instinctively think of his great power and lordly mastery over the beasts—of his majestic tread as he strode these vallies and hill-tops——of his anger when excited to fury—stamping the earth till trembling beneath his feet—snuffing the wind with disdain, and uttering his wrath in tones of thunder,—and the mind quails beneath the oppressive grandeur of the thought, and we feel as if driven along by the violence of a tornado. When the pressure of contemplation has subsided and we recovered from the blast, we move along and ponder on the time when the Mastodon lived,—when and how he died, and the nature of the catastrophe that extinguished the race; and the mind again becomes bewildered and lost in the uncertainty of the cause. Speculation is at fault, and our thoughts wander about among the possible accidents and physical agents which might have worked the sudden or lingering death of this line of terrestrial monarchs. Upon these subjects, wrapt in the deep mystery of many ages, we have no fixed or well-considered theory; and if we had, the limits of our paper would forbid us to argue it up before our readers, and argue down all hostile ones. But we may briefly enquire, whether the cause of the death and utter annihilation of the race, was one great overwhelming flood which submerged the earth and swept down these animals as they peacefully and unsuspiciously wandered over the plains and hills around us. Or was it some earthquake convulsion, full of sudden wrath, which tore up its strong foundations and buried this race among the uplifted and subsiding mass of ruins; or was it some unusual storm, black with fury and terrible as the tornado, which swept the wide borders of these grounds, and carried tree and rock and living Mastodon in one unbroken stream to a common grave? or was it the common fate of nations, men and every race of created animals of water, land or air, which overlook and laid the giants low? that by the physical law of their nature, the decree of heaven, the race started into being—grew up to physical perfection,—and having fulfilled the purpose assigned by their creation, by a decrease slow, but sure as their increase, degenerated in number, and gradually died away and became extinct. Or was it some malignant distemper, fatal as the Egyptian marrain, which attacked the herd in every locality of this wide domain—sending its burning poison to their very vitals—forcing them to allay an insatiate thirst and seek relief in the water ponds around them, and there drank, and drank, and died? Or was it rather, as is the general belief in this community, that individual accident, numerous as the race, befell each one, and in the throes of extrication sank deep and deeper still in the soft and miry beds where we now find their bones reposing? We have thus briefly laid before our readers all the causes which we have heard assigned for this remarkable, ancient and wide-spread catastrophe, and leave them to the speculation of others, while we wait for time and the developments of geology to uncover the cause. 667th