that his father (the iffue of their marriage) married a mu latto woman, born of an African father and an Irish mother; and that his maternal grandfather was a native of Africa. That about February 1792, he first perceived a change in his fkin, about the roots of his finger-nails, which extended to the length of the first joints; that, about two months afterwards, the back of his neck began to change gradually, extending downwards, and round his body, to most parts covered by his clothes; that the alteration was greater in the fecond than the first year; and that he has not perceived much, if any, progrefs in the winter, or cold weather. In the latter part of the fummer of 1796, it was fo rapid on his face and hands, that several who revifited him, after an abfence of twelve or fourteen days, difcovered a very obvious alteration; and they had no doubt, that if he should live over another fummer or two, the change would be completed throughout. He remarked, that, fince it began, he has been much more fenfible of the heat of the fun on his fhoulders, than formerly; and that blifters and freckles have been raised on every part which holes in his clothes had exposed to its a&ion; and alfo, that he has felt the cold much more fenfibly than before.

If Henry Mofs had happened to have been a flave, this fingular change of his colour might have furnished an irre fragable argument for annihilating his owner's claim.

J. W.

A Curious DECEPTION practifed by the Bishop of LISEUX. THE faloon of the Epifcopal Palace of Lifeux, on the King's paffing through that town in an excurfion from Cherbourg, was fuperbly decorated with triumphal arches, under each of which was a marble pedestal. The Prelate

de

VIEW of the HEAD of the

MAMMOTH,

Drawn from the real Skeleton found in the State of New York, Autumn 1801

DESCRIPTION OF THE MAMMOTH.

235

de la Ferronaya, not having had fufficient time to get statues from Rouen or Paris, went into the town, felected little boys and girls from the age of ten to twelve, all remarkable for their beauty, had them dreffed in white, and placed them in different attitudes on the pedestals; the King found the ftatues very natural, and praised the Bishop's fculptors very much. The Prelate, willing to undeceive the Sovereign, thus addreffed him: "Sire! if your Majesty wishes that these statues should be animated, and that they should falute you, a word from your royal lips will effect the miracle." The King fmiled, confented to give the order, and faw, with agreeable furprize, that the ftatues bowed with the moft enchanting obedience. His Majefty ordered four louis to be given to each of the children, and gave M. de la Ferronaya credit for his invention.

X.

Account of the Wonderful Carnivorous Animal of Immense Size, called MAMMOTH or MAMMUTH, and in Scripture BEHEMOTH, with a full Defcription of the SKELETONS and BONES formerly and lately difcovered; felected from the BEST AUTHORITIES, and including the various Opinions of our most eminent NATURALISTS thereon.

THE Mammoth, which has for a long time justly excited the curiofity of the scientific world, is thus defcribed by Muller in the Recueil des Voyages au Nord." (Collection of Voyages to the North Pole). "This animal," he fays, "is four or five yards high, and about 30 feet long. His colour is greyish. His head is very long, and his front very broad. On each fide, precifely under the eyes, there are two horns, which he can move and cross at pleasure. In walking he has the power of extending and contracting his body to a great degree." Ifbrandes Ides gives a fimilar account; but he is candid enough to acknowledge, that he

never knew any person who had feen the Mammoth alive, Mr. Pennant, however, thinks it "more than probable, that it still exists in some of those remote parts of the vast new continent, impenetrated yet by Europeans. Provi dence (he adds) maintains and continues every created fpecies; and we have as much affurance, that no race of animals will any more ceafe while the earth remaineth, than feed time and harvest, cold and heat, fummer and winter, day and night." The Ohio Indians have a tradition handed down from their fathers refpecting these animals, "That in ancient times a herd of them came to the Bigbone Licks, and began an universal deftruction of the bears, deer, elks, buffaloes, and other animals which had been created for the ufe of the Indians: that the Great Man above, looking down and feeing this, was fo enraged that he seized his lightning, defcended to the earth, feated himfelf upon a neighbouring mountain on a rock, on which his feat and the print of his feet are ftill to be feen, and hurled his bolts among them till the whole were slaughtered, except the big bull, who prefenting his forehead to the fhafts, fhook them off as they fell; but at length miffing one, it wounded him in the fide; whereon, springing round, he bounded over the Ohio, the Wabash, the Illi nois, and finally over the great lakes, where he is living at this day."

Several eminent naturalifts, as Sir Hans Sloane, Gmelin, Daubenton, and Buffon, are of opinion that these prodigious bones and tufks are really the bones and tusks of ele. phants, and many modern philofophers have held the Mammoth to be as fabulous as the centaur. The great difference in fize they endeavour to account for as arifing from difference in age, fex, and climate; and the caufe of their being found in thofe northern parts of the world where elephants are no longer natives, nor can even long exift, they prefume to have arifen from hence; that, in the great

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