A Place Called Freedom

It took the men two weeks to track down a suitable subject. The moose, when shot, unfortunately lacked the imposing horns that Jefferson had specified, but Sullivan thoughtfully included a rack of antlers from an elk or stag with the suggestion that these be attached instead. Who in France, after all, would know? Meanwhile in Philadelphia-WistarБЂ™s city-naturalists had begun to assemble the bones of a giant elephant-like creature known at first as БЂњthe great American incognitumБЂ«but later identified, not quite correctly, as a mammoth. The first of these bones had been discovered at a place called Big Bone Lick in Kentucky, but soon others were turning up all over. America, it appeared, had once been the home of a truly substantial creature-one that would surely disprove BuffonБЂ™s foolish Gallic contentions. In their keenness to demonstrate the incognitumБЂ™s bulk and ferocity, the American naturalists appear to have become slightly carried away. They overestimated its size by a factor of six and gave it frightening claws, which in fact came from a Megalonyx, or giant ground sloth, found nearby ...»