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x alluvial matters of a silicious character with pebbles; in the neighborhood much indurated land may be found & might be used for building. Silicified oyster, ammonites & other shells have been met with.

 About two miles from Bastrop "in a prairie 

" was discovered the horns jaw-bone & teeth of some mammoth of " which history gives no account. The horn six & " a half feet in length, nine inches in diameter; also " part of a tooth, say one-third of it weighing " sixteen or eighteen pounds"

typed - possibly newspaper clipping "When you was in this place I had the satisfaction of shewing you some specimens of bones, which, I am told, are the largest as have yet been discovered on the habitable globe. I have had a number of travellers, and some of them scientific gentlemen, who have called on me to see them; and they all agree that they exceed anything in natural history, or of the present day - the large bones of Kentucky not excepted.

" The bones which I  have fortunately procured so far, are - the horns, jaw-bone, and teeth of some mammoth, of which history gives no account. The great Marstadon is said not to have horns; but I have nearly a perfect horn, six and a half feet in length, nine inches in diameter, or twenty seven inches in circumference; also part of a  tooth, about one-third of the lower jaw or socket, of the same weight.
 "I still have hands employed in excavating the earth, and am in hopes of shewing that Texas, although young in the annals of history, can produce the largest bones that have yet been discovered.
 "These bones were discovered in the prairie, two miles below Bastrop, and within two hundred yards of the Colorado River."

The foregoing are extracts from a letter of General Denyse which, together with a small fragment of one of the bones, has been handed to us by a friend. We are informed that General Denyse has the bones at his residence at Bastrop, where any gentleman who is desirous may see them. We hope they will not be permitted to leave this country, but that at some future day, they will be deposited in a national museum. [written in margin]

from Austin  ??? 15  1840