6329. PALEONTOLOGY, Bones.—
General
Clark has employed ten laborers several
weeks at the Big-bone Lick, and has shipped
the result * * * for this place [Washington].
He has sent, 1st, of the Mammoth, as he calls
it, frontals, jaw-bones, tusks, teeth, ribs, a
thigh, and a leg, and some bones of the paw;
2d, of what he calls the Elephant, a jaw-bone,
tusks, teeth, ribs; 3d. of something of the
Buffalo species, a head and some other bones
unknown. My intention, in having this research
thoroughly made, was to procure for the
[Philosophical] Society as complete a supplement
to what is already possessed as that lick
can furnish at this day, and to serve them first
with whatever they wish to possess of it. There
are a tusk and a femur which General Clark
procured particularly at my request, for a
special kind of Cabinet I have at Monticello.
But the great mass of the collection are mere
duplicates of what you possess at Philadelphia,
of which I would wish to make a donation to
the National Institute of France, which I believe
has scarcely any specimens of the remains
of these animals. But how make the selection
without the danger of sending away something
which might be useful to our own Society?
Indeed, my friend, you must give a week to this
object, * * * examine these bones, and set
apart what you would wish for the Society.—
To Dr. Wistar. Washington ed. v, 219.
(W.
1807)
