Word: mastodon
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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...first, it was believed that there were the remains of two prehistoric animals in the swamp, because one tusk of the mastodon was broken off and apparently buried in its own side, as if a struggle had taken place. Dr. Mather definitely destroyed this notion in the following letter to Mr. Hirschberg...
...Permit me to express to you my great appreciation for your courtesy in showing me the remains of the mastodon which you are recovering from the old swamp near Johnstown. The specimen is an unusually perfect and complete skeleton of this interesting, extinct form of life. The individual was an adult in the prime of life, full grown, but not aged and decrepit. Presumably it was bogged down in the swamp and died there...
...Johnstown mastodon is presumably a member of the species which roamed widely over the central states while the ice sheets were retreating northward during the last glacial epoch, an epoch of geological history which reached its climax between 25,000 and 50,000 years ago. This particular mastodon wandered around in Licking country after the ice had melted far to the northward from this place, as indicated by the fact that the remains are in swamp muck on top of glacial drift. It therefore lived between 5,000 and 30,000 years...
...Johnstown mastodon is probably a little larger than the Cohoes, New York, specimen, and a trifle smaller than the so-called Warren mastodon. It stood, when alive about ten feet tall at the shoulder, and was approximately 15 feet in length from forehead to tail...
...Hirschberg, the first mastodon impresario on record, claims that he has refused an offer of $75,000 for his prize. In as much as Dr. Mather stated yesterday that the approximate museum value of even so large and well preserved mastodon as Mr. Hirschberg's is not over $15,000, it is believed that the Newark business man has not acted rationally in refusing so large a sum. He has confided to several friends that he will accept $200,000 for the mastodon...