Fort Bend County, Texas - Chapter with an unread heading (no. 44 of those read), 1904

One of the largest specimens of great animals now extinct was found some years ago by a Mr. Hubbard, in the bank of the Brazos River, while fishing about sixteen miles below the town of Richmond. On this occasion Hubbard had landed in a skiff and instructed his son to tieup the boat and then come on up the river to a certain place not far away, where he intended to sit upon the bank and fish. The boy obeyed the injunction, and tied the boat to what he supposed to be an old dead cottonwood snag protruding from the water near the bank. When Mr. Hubbard returned to get in the boat again, and while untying it, he discovered that it was not a common snag, but, as he supposed, was a petrified piece of timber. After further investigation, however, it proved to not have been wood at all, but was the tusk of a great auimal. An excavation was now made to secure the remains of the animal, and after digging and tunnelling about twenty-two feet, he succeeded in getting out one of the tusks, which was eighteen feet and two and one-fourth inches in length, and sixteen feet from the head measured eig'ht inches in diameter. The tusks of this animal did not curve like those of an elephant, but ran straight out from the head. Hubbard succeeded' in getting out this tusk and part of the head, w'hen a great rise came in the Brazos, and completely filled up the excavation, and no further attempt has been made to secure the balance of this immense animal. Not enoug'h of imiportance was placed upon the find by Mr. Hubbard. He sent a negro with a wagon to baul the tusk home, but be was unable to load it alone, and proceeded to chop it up in sections so that be could do so. One of these parts is now on exhibition in the saloon of C. A. Austin in Richmond. It is bard to realize or get a right conception of the great size of this animal. One capable of carrying a pair of tusks with ease more than eighteen feet in length, which at the head was as large around as an ordinary man's body, required a monster in size indeed. These tusks did not taper much, and were large and stubby at the extreme points. When the find was made the Brazos River was at a very low ebb, and had been for some time, and ordinarily this tusk which Hubbard recovered was under water. The body of the animal, however, was under the bank. The bones of large animals have been found above Richmond, in the Brazos, and are now on exhibition in Rosenberg. These animals might have met their death by miring in an attempt to get water. It would take solid soil to stand their weight.