Account of the Skeleton of the Mammoth

Receive, Sir, as a small testimonyof my high respect for a Characterrendered illustrious in the paths ofScience, this plain recital of Facts,and first publication, derived fromauthentic sources, on a subject inwhich You have declared Yourself tofeel the most lively interest; andwhich must interest every thinkingmind, delighting in the investigation ofphysical causes, or disposed “to lookthrough Nature up to Nature’s God.”

The curiosity of the scientific world has fora long time been justly excited by the fossilremains of a non-descript animal, which havebeen found in North America and Siberia, butgenerally in so mutilated a condition as to givebut very imperfect ideas either of the size or kindof animal to which they must have belonged.The first account of them which we can find, isin the fifth volume of Jones’s PhilosophicalTransactions abridged, part second, page 159,in an extract of a letter from Dr. Mather toDr. Woodward, dated Boston, Nov. 17, 1712;in which the Doctor gives an account of a largework in manuscript, intitled the Biblia Americana.This work Dr. Mather recommends to thepatronage of some Mecænas, to promote thepublication of. As a specimen of it he transcribesa passage out of it, being a note on that passagein Genesis, chap. vi. verse 4, relating to giants;and confirms the opinion of ther