Legends of the Shawangunk2 JR.pdf - Friends of the Sabbath ...

The Mastodon. 37
anger when excited to fury, uttering his wrath in thunder tones—there is that in the
subject which clothes the locality in a new and interesting light.*
In the north part of a swamp near Crawford’s, Orange county, some years since, a
mastodon skeleton was found. A writer says of it: “This skeleton I examined very
minutely, and found that the carcass had been deposited whole, but that the jaw-bones,
two of the ribs, and a thigh-bone had been broken by some violent force while the flesh
yet remained on the bones. Two other parts of skeletons were found, one at Ward’s
bridge, the other at Masten’s meadow, in Shawangunk. In both instances the carcasses
had been torn asunder, and the bones had been deposited with the flesh on, and some of
the bones were fractured. That the bones were deposited with the flesh appears from the
fact that they were found attached to each other, and evidently belonged to only one part
of the carcass, and no other bones could be found near the spot. Great violence world be
necessary to break the bones of such large animals; in the ordinary course of things no
force adequate to that effect would be exerted. I think it fair reasoning, that, at the
deluge, they were brought by the westerly currents to the place where they were found;
that the carcasses were brought in the first violent surges, and braised and torn asunder by
the tremendous cataracts, created when the currents crossed the high mountains and
ridges, and fell into the deep valleys between the Shawangunk mountain and the level
countries adjacent.”
At what age in the world’s history the mastodon lived, how and when he died, there
is no well-developed theory.
Is the death and utter annihilation of the race attributable to an over-whelming flood
which submerged the earth and swept down those animals as they peacefully and
unsuspiciously wandered?
Was it some unusual storm, black with fury, terrible as a tornado, and death-dealing
as a sirocco, which swept the wide borders of the Shawangunk, and in one wrathful,
destroying stream swept the living mastodon into utter oblivion?
Was it the common fate of nations, the destiny of every created race of animals, that
by the physical law of their natures, the race started into being, grew up to physical
perfection, fulfilled the purpose of their creation, and became extinct?
Was it some malignant distemper, fatal as the murrain of Egypt and widespread as
the earth itself, which attacked the herd and laid the giants low? Or was it rather
individual accident, numerous as the race, befalling each one, and which, amidst the
throes and toils of extrication, caused them to sink deeper and deeper still in the soft and
miry beds where we find their bones reposing?
When did these animals live and when did they perish, are questions no more easy of
solution. Were they pre-Adamites, and did they graze upon the
* Eager.