"The giants that once groaned under
the waters
of the Deluge, are now found under the earth,
and their dead bodies are lively proofs
of Moses's history."
COTTON MATHER, 1712
"The
tusks agree with those of the
African and Asiatic elephant, but the grinders
differ, being full of knobs like
the grinders of a carnivorous animal."
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, 1767
"I
have a grinder in my house much resembling
these which was found on the Ohio."
GEORGE WASHINGTON, 1780
"They
all suppose these bones to belong
to quadrupeds. I suppose them to be
human like the bones and teeth at Claverack"
EZRA STILES, 1781
"To
whatever animal we ascribe these remains,
it is certain that such a one has existed in America,
and that it has been the largest of all
terrestrial beings."
THOMAS JEFFERSON, 1787
"Cruel
as the bloody panther,
swift as the descending eagle, and terrible
as the Angel of Night."
CHARLES WILLSON PEALE, 1801
"In
the inverted position of the tusks,
he could have torn an animal to pieces
held beneath his foot."
REMBRANDT PEALE, 1803
READ American Monster
Discover
the curious link
between patriotism and prehistoric nature!
© 2003 Paul Semonin
EUROPEAN
CONNECTIONS
The famous French naturalist
Buffon was the first to suggest
the American monster may
have been an extinct species.
The
distinctive shape of
the animal's tooth led
Dr. William Hunter, London's
foremost surgeon to claim
the animal was a carnivore.
"What ravage might not be
expected from a creature
endowed with the strength of
the elephant and the rapacity
of a tiger," declared the
novelist Oliver Goldsmith.
"What was this nature
that was not subject to
man's dominion?"
asked the French anatomist
Georges Cuvier.