onsists, for the most part, of a
brown loamy earth, and a yellowish sandy clay. Marine shells, and other
substances, in a fossil state, are found at the depth of eighteen or
twenty feet below the surface of the ground. Some of these are of very
extraordinary description. In the year 1712, several bones and teeth of
a vast nondescript quadruped, were dug up at Albany in the state of New
York. By the ignorant inhabitants these were considered to be the
remains of gigantic human bodies. In 1799 the bones of other individuals
of this animal, which has since been denominated the _Mastodon_ or
_American Mammoth_, were discovered beneath the surface of the ground,
in the vicinity of Newburgh, on the river Hudson. Induced by the hope of
being able to obtain a perfect skeleton, a Mr. Peale, of Philadelphia,
purchased these bones, with the right of digging for others. He was
indefatigable in his exertions, but was unable, for some time, to
procure any more. He made an attempt in a morass about twelve miles
distant from Newburgh, where an entire set of ribs was found, but
unaccompanied by any other remains. In another morass, in Ulster county,
he found several bones; among the rest a complete under jaw, and upper
part of the head. From the whole of the fragments that he obtained, he
was enabled to form two skeletons. One of these, under the name of
mammoth, was exhibited in London, about a year afterwards. Its height at
the shoulder was eleven feet; its whole length was fifteen feet; and its
weight about one thousand pounds. This skeleton was furnished with large
and curved ivory tusks, different in shape from those of an elephant,
but similar in quality. In 1817 another skeleton was dug up, from the
depth of only four feet, in the town of _Goshen_, near Chester. The
tusks of this were more than nine feet in length.

In a region so extensive as the United States, there must necessarily be
a great variety of _climate_. In general, the heat of summer and the
cold of winter are more intense, and the transitions, from the one to
the other, are more sudden than in the old continent. The predominant
winds are from the west; and the severest cold is felt from the
north-west. Between the forty-second and forty-fifth degrees of
latitude, the same parallel as the south of France, the winters are very
severe. During winter, the ice of the rivers is sufficiently strong to
bear the passage of horses and waggons; and snow is so abundant, as to