Mastodons had been uncovered long before Youth's Cabinet reprinted "Bones of a Mastodon." Luckily, young readers could learn about mastodons and their skeletons from several works by Samuel Griswold Goodrich, beginning with an illustration of the skeleton in The Child's First Book of History. Because this is one of the least descriptive descriptions of a mastodon in an early work on fossils for young readers. Subscribers to Robert Merry's Museum were luckier, with a clear illustration of a mammoth skeleton two years later.

http://www.merrycoz.org/cabinet/MASTODON.HTM

BONES OF A MASTODON (reprinted from Pittsburg Advocate; from Youth's Cabinet, July 11, 1839, p. 112)

Our readers will recollect of reading some time last summer, of the discovery of the bones of a gigantic animal, in Crawford County, Ohio. The bones are now in Pittsburg, Pa. The bones of the head, including a number of grinders, are in a remarkable state of preservation, and some faint idea of what the living animal was may be formed, when we state that the skull and upper jaw are 3 feet three inches in length, and weigh 160 pounds, the lower jaw 77 pounds--the whole head, 237 pounds of dry bones! There are many other bones--legs, ribs, vertebræ, &c., all in a good state of perservation.--Pittsburg Advocate.


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