FINDS OF PLEISTOCENE MASTODONS IN EASTERN NORTH AMERICA.

ONTARIO.

(Map 5.)

1. Essex County.—In 1898 (Science, n. s., vol. VII, p. 80), Dr. H. M. Ami reported that he had exhumed some mastodon remains in this county. The exact locality was not given. It was north of the west end of Lake Erie. The section dug up was from 6 to 8 feet deep. At the bottom were clay and boulders; above this were found gravel and the bones, and above these sand, shell marl, peat, and other sands of various colors. The remains were fragmentary.

2. Morpeth and Highgate, Elgin County.—In 1858 (Canad. Jour. Indust. Sci. Art, ser. 2, vol. III, p. 356), E. J. Chapman announced the discovery of a tooth of mastodon at or near this place. He had seen a drawing of the tooth. It appears that another man also had sent to the journal an account of the discovery, accompanied by drawings. These showed 5 distinct crown-ridges.

In 1891 (Geol. Mag. London, ser. 3, vol. VIII, p. 504; Brit. Assoc. Adv. Sci., 64th meeting, 1892, p. 654), Professor J. Hoyes Panton gave an account of the discovery of mammoth and mastodon bones at Highgate, only a few miles north of Morpeth. These were found in a bed of marl. Some measurements of the mastodon were given.

3. St. Thomas, Elgin County.—In a private museum at Niagara Falls, owned at the time by Davis Brothers, the writer saw a quite complete lower jaw and a tusk, labeled as having been found at this place in 1856, on the farm of Isaac Barnard. The jaw had the last 3 teeth on the right side and the last 2 on the left side. In front was a tusk about 6 inches long which appeared to be in the middle of the jaw. The upper tusk is curved in a semicircle. Dr. J. W. Dawson (Geol. Mag. London, ser. 1, vol. VI, 1869, p. 39) mentions this find. He stated that there were 2 lower tusks. If this was the case the species M. progenium is indicated.

4. London, Middlesex County.—In the article quoted above from the Geological Magazine of London, Dr. J. W. Dawson stated that there were in the Provincial Museum 3 mastodon molars which had been found at London.

5. Marburg, Norfolk County.—In 1898 (Science, n. s., vol. VII, p. 80), Dr. H. M. Ami reported the exhumation of remains of a mastodon at some place in this county. The skull, 25 ribs, 40 foot-bones, 2 tusks, and many vertebræ were recovered. The remains were buried at a depth of from only 3 to 4.5 feet. At the bottom was clay; above this, shell marl, and sands of different colors; and above all was peat.

The writer has seen this skull in Victoria Museum, Ottawa. It is to a considerable extent restored. It appears to have been found at or near Marburg. A small label, somewhat injured, has the record: “West half lot 15, R V, Tp. of [?]dhouse, Norfolk Co., Ont. Ami, 1897.” The penultimate and ultimate molars are in place. The former is 113 mm. long; the latter is 174 mm. long, and has 4 crests and a talon. The tusks are present 46and the right one is 2,230 mm. long. The skull is a large one. The width across the rear is 760 mm.

6. Dunnville, Haldimand County.—In 1869 (Geol. Mag. London, dec. 1, vol. VI, pp. 38, 39), Dr. J. W. Dawson gave an account of the finding of a mastodon, in 1868, at the place named, situated at the east end of Lake Erie. When he reached the place a large part of the animal had disappeared, especially the tusks. He found 7 teeth, a few vertebræ, a few fragments of ribs, and part of the right ramus of the lower jaw. These remains were buried in a swamp, partly embedded in a layer of fine sand. This contained fresh-water shells of species yet living in that region. The sand was 2.5 feet thick and rested on boulder clay. Over the sand was 1.5 feet of black vegetable mold. He regarded it as clear that the animal lived long after the close of the Glacial period.

7. St. Catharines and Welland Port, Lincoln County.—At Rochester University, New York, the writer has seen a cast of a lower jaw, labeled as having come from the place named above. On the left side the second and third molars are present, the former slightly worn, the hindermost not at all. On the right side the hindermost molar is not to be seen. The second molar is tilted up behind and lowered in front. The little wear of the tooth is on the hinder end. It is possible that the hindermost molar was yet in the bone and somewhat under the second one. The ramus has a length of 400 mm.

8. Toronto, York County.—It does not appear to be wholly certain that the mastodon has been found at Toronto; but its occurrence there is probable. In some of his papers Coleman has reported that its presence was believed to be determined.

9. Junction of Missinaibi and Moose Rivers, Algoma County.—In 1898 (Science, n. s., vol. VII, p. 80), Robert Bell reported a mastodon tooth from the locality mentioned. It had been chopped out of a skull by an Indian. Later Bell attempted to obtain the skull, but could not, because of high water. A further account was given of this tooth by Bell in 1898 (Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., vol. IX, p. 383).

CAPE BRETON ISLAND.

1. Middle River, Victoria County.—In 1912 (Proc. Trans. Nova Scotia Inst. Sci., vol. XIII, pp. 163–174), Mr. Harry Piers, curator of the Provincial Museum, Halifax, presented a paper in which he detailed the history of mastodon remains found on Cape Breton Island. At the place above named, in a meadow, at a depth of only 5 inches, was found a right femur. According to Piers’s account, this was discovered about the year 1834, possibly a few years earlier. It came into the possession of the Mechanics’ Institute, at Halifax, and later of the Provincial Museum of Halifax, where it is now preserved. It was noticed and figured by J. W. Dawson in the four editions of his “Acadian Geology.”

2. Baddeck, Victoria County.—According to Piers’s account, a molar tooth of a mastodon, now in the Provincial Museum, was found in 1859, at the place named. This tooth is figured by Dawson, with the femur. Piers states that Dawson was in error in crediting Honeyman with the discovery. Details regarding this are wanting. The molar has 3 crests. 47In the same museum is a part of a proboscidean tusk, but it is not certain where it was found. It is quite certain that all of these remains are of animals which lived there after the Wisconsin ice had retired.

These localities are not indicated on the map.

MASSACHUSETTS.

(Maps 5, 6.)

1. Coleraine, Franklin County.—In 1872 (Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. III, p. 146), Dr. Edward Hitchcock, in a letter to one of the editors, reported the discovery of a tooth of a mastodon at or near this place. It had been shoveled out of a muck-bed, on the farm of Elias Bardwell. Nothing more is known about the matter. This tooth was mentioned by B. K. Emerson in 1917 (Bull. U. S. Geol. Surv. 597, p. 149).

2. Shrewsbury, Worcester County.—In 1885 (Trans. N. Y. Acad. Sci., vol. V, pp. 14, 15), N. L. Britton read before the Academy an extract from the New York Times, copied from the Worcester Spy of October 14, 1885, relating to the finding of a human skull near Shrewsbury, close to the spot where mastodon remains had been found the year before. In Science (vol. VI, 1885), Professor F. W. Putnam gave an account of the investigations of the case made by himself and others. The conditions under which the mastodon was buried were incidentally described. In the same year Franklin P. Rice, a member of the Worcester Natural History Society, published a pamphlet of 8 pages, in which the discovery and exhumation of the remains were set forth; one molar, an upper penultimate, was well figured. A trench was being made in a meadow of a farmer, W. U. Maynard, about 2 miles from the center of Shrewsbury, on the road to Northborough. The teeth and some bones of the mastodon were met at a depth of 8 feet. Putnam stated that these remains, as well as the human skull, were resting on blue clay beneath a bed of peat. Rice reported that the mastodon bones and teeth were resting on bed-rock. Putnam believed that both skulls had been transported thither by water before the peat was laid down. From Mrs. Ella Horr, custodian of the Natural History Museum of Worcester, the writer has learned that the mastodon remains are preserved there. Mention was made of these remains by B. K. Emerson in 1917 (Bull. U. S. Geol. Surv. 597, p. 149).

There is no reason to suppose that the mastodon in question lived before the Wisconsin stage, but at its close. The ice must already have retired beyond the State, and the land, which, according to Dr. Fairchild, was depressed at the latitude of Shrewsbury about 350 feet, must have been elevated enough to reduce considerably the area covered by water before conditions would have favored the presence of mastodon. It is possible, however, that the depression was not so great.

CONNECTICUT.

(Maps 5, 6.)

1. Cheshire, New Haven County.—In 1828 (Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. XIV, p. 187), a note appeared which stated that in the summer of the preceding year 3 or 4 large molar teeth of a “mammoth” had been found near Cheshire. From the description it is evident that they were teeth of a 48mastodon. They were in fine condition but were immediately destroyed in a frolic of the workmen. The teeth had been found in gravel only a few feet under ground. Warren (“Monogr. on Mastodon giganteus,” p. 3) stated that the mastodon teeth had been found in making a canal at Cheshire. He undoubtedly referred to the teeth mentioned above. Schuchert (Amer. Jour. Sci., ser. 4, vol. XIV, p. 321) states that one tooth was preserved and is now in the Yale University collection.

2. New Britain, Hartford County.—In 1835 (Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. XXVII, p. 165), a report was published about the finding of a vertebra of a mastodon in digging a canal for a factory in Berlin, not far from New Britain. It appears to have been met with in a deposit of marl. Schuchert (op. cit., p. 322) mentions this find and says that the locality was not in Berlin, but in New Britain. The depth is given as 3 feet and the material as mud or clay.

Schuchert, as cited, gave an account of the discovery, in 1852, of another mastodon in New Britain. Two or three teeth and some bones were found in a soft swampy soil.

3. Farmington, Hartford County.—In 1914 (Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. XXXVII, pp. 321–330), Schuchert and Lull described the exhumation of a mastodon near the town named. All of the principal bones of the skeleton were secured. One tusk and most of the foot-bones were missing. The account ought to be taken by collectors as a model for their reports. The exact position of the skeleton is given. A topographic map of the surrounding region is furnished, as well as the details concerning the materials occurring above and below the bones. These lay on boulder clay of Wisconsin age and were covered by materials washed in from the surrounding higher grounds. No mollusks were found in the excavation, and little vegetation. The bones, as shown by Lull’s map, were remarkably little disturbed, not more than one might expect from the activities of wolves. One of the tusks was, however, removed from the skull a distance of 23 feet and left on ground 2 feet higher. Schuchert regarded this as being hard to explain. The other tusk was not found at all.

4. Bristol, Hartford County.—In 1885 (Trans. N. Y. Acad. Sci., vol. V, p. 14), O. P. Hubbard stated that the remains of a mastodon had been found at Bristol, but no further information was furnished.

5. Sharon, Litchfield County.—In 1828 (Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. XIV, p. 187), in a footnote, it was reported that, a good many years before that time, some remains of mastodon had been found near Sharon. In 1835 (ibid., vol. XXVII, p. 166) it was stated that a mastodon bone, found probably at Sharon, had been presented to the museum of Yale College. There seems to be no certainty that the bone was correctly identified.

NEW YORK.

(Maps 5, 6, 34.)

1. New Dorp, Richmond County.—In 1901 (Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci., vol. XIV, p. 67), Dr. Arthur Hollick reported the discovery of some fragments of a molar of a mastodon in a swamp deposit in the Moravian cemetery immediately north of New Dorp, Staten Island. The molar was found at 49a depth of 23 feet. The swamp, now drained, was located immediately on the moraine of the Wisconsin ice-sheet (Folio 157, U. S. Geol. Sur.). It had evidently at first been a pond about 25 feet deep; later it had become filled up with sandy silt, muck, and vegetable débris. At a depth of about 8 feet Hollick found a stratum approximately 2 feet thick, in which were cones of white spruce (Picea canadensis), a tree now found not farther south than northern New England and the Adirondacks. Evidently the mastodon had lived there not long after the retirement of the ice, for the tooth appears to have been only about 2 feet above the bottom of the old pond. The spot is probably at an altitude above the submergence described by Fairchild (Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., vol. XXVIII, p. 279).

2. Ridgewood, Kings County.—In 1885 (Trans. N. Y. Acad. Sci., vol. V, p. 15), Mr. D. S. Martin stated that some 15 or 20 years before that time a mastodon skeleton had been exhumed in excavating for the Ridgewood, Long Island, reservoirs. No details were furnished.

3. Jamaica, Queens County.—In 1859 (Proc. Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sci., 12th meeting, 1858, p. 232), J. C. Brevoort reported the finding of 5 molar teeth and fragments of bones in removing pond-muck in the valley of a small stream which flowed into Baisley’s pond, near Jamaica. In the pond itself was a deposit of mud, in some places 6 feet deep, which rested on gravel. This deposit of mud, mixed with vegetable matter, is continued up the valley mentioned. The bones and teeth were found about 20 yards from the channel of the stream, resting on the gravel and covered by about 4 feet of the muck.

According to Folio 83, of the U. S. Geological Survey, Jamaica and vicinity is situated on stratified drift which was laid down while the foot of the glacial ice was immediately north of the town. The mastodon must have lived there after the retreat of the ice from the island; it may have been a long time afterward. According to Fairchild, as above cited, this locality was submerged by the sea while the stratified materials were being laid down.

4. Inwood, Nassau County.—In 1891 (Science, vol. XVIII, p. 342), Professor R. P. Whitfield noted the finding near Inwood of a fragment of what he regarded as a mastodon tusk. It was met in cutting a ditch in a peat-swamp. While the probability is that the tusk was that of a mastodon, it might have been that of one of the elephants.

5. Riverhead, Suffolk County.—In 1842 (Zool. of New York, Mamm., p. 103), DeKay stated that in the year 1823 more than half of a lower jaw, with the teeth, of a mastodon had been found on the south beach, about 4 miles east of Riverhead, between high and low water. This fossil was mentioned by Dr. John M. Clarke in 1904 (N. Y. State Mus., Bull. 69, p. 923); also by J. C. Brevoort in 1859 (Proc. Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sci., vol. XII, p. 233). This vicinity was evidently submerged while the foot of the glacier was in Long Island. Only after the emergence of the island did the animal probably have its existence.

6. Morrisania, New York County.—In 1885, Dr. N. L. Britton (Trans. N. Y. Acad. Sci., vol. V, p. 15) reported the discovery of a large portion of a mastodon’s tusk in a cellar excavation in Morrisania 3 years previously. 50Here, as in similar cases, one can not be certain that the tusk was not that of an elephant.

7. New York City.—In 1891 (Science, vol. XVIII, p. 342), Professor R. P. Whitfield recorded the finding of a supposed mastodon tusk at the upper end of New York Island. It was found at a depth of 16 feet below mean low-water mark, embedded in peat, with the socket end downward. It was met with in excavating the Harlem ship-canal and at the mouth of Dyckman’s Creek, an artificial waterway. The location is given as 15 feet from the north side of the canal and 10 feet west of the center of Broadway. At this particular spot there was found at the surface from 4 to 6 feet of meadow sod, with roots, etc. Below this was 12 feet of incipient pure peat, lying on 18 to 20 inches of sandy clay, which itself reposed on limestone. The tusk was in the peat, with its base in the sand. It appeared to have settled from above through the peat.

8. Hartsdale, Westchester County.—In 1908, Dr. John M. Clarke (60th Ann. Rep. New York State Mus., for 1906, p. 60), reported that a tooth and some small fragments of bone of a mastodon had been found on the property of W. H. Fish of Hartsdale. No other information was given.

9. New Antrim, Rockland County.—In 1818 (Cuvier’s Essay Orig. Earth, p. 390, plate VI, figs. 1 to 4), Samuel L. Mitchill stated that he had received a set of grinding teeth which had been found at the place named. It is described as being 11 miles west of the Hudson River and 32 miles from New York. The teeth had been found in mud at a depth of 3 feet. They are mentioned in J. D. Godman’s “American Natural History.”

10. Arden, Orange County.—In 1903 (New York State Mus. Bull. 69, p. 926), Dr. John M. Clarke stated that a tusk and a few other bones of a mastodon had been found at this place. In 1908 (66th Ann. Rep. New York State Mus., vol. I, p. 61), he gives the further information that the locality was on lands of Mr. E. H. Harriman. Only 2 teeth, some ribs, and a few fragments were secured. The soil was a peat or vegetable mold.

11. Monroe, Orange County.—In 1903 (op. cit., p. 926), Clarke reported that about the year 1888 mastodon bones were found on land of Martin Konnight. Clarke himself continued excavations in 1901. About half of the skeleton was secured in all. These bones are now in the New York State Museum at Albany. They lay beneath 3 feet of clayey muck, at the bottom of a pond from 3 to 10 feet deep.

12. Chester, Orange County.—In 1818 (Cuvier’s Essay, etc., p. 376, plate VII, figs. 1 to 4), Samuel L. Mitchill presented an account of the exhumation in 1817 of a part of a mastodon skeleton at Chester. This had been originally discovered in a ditch made through a wet meadow. The surface soil was underlain by about 6 feet of black peat, and the bones lay in this at a depth of about 4 feet; beneath was a stratum of coarse vegetation. No marl underlay this muck. The upper jaw with teeth and tusks, lower jaw with teeth, shoulder-blade, vertebræ, and parts of the limbs were secured. An account of this discovery is to be found in Godman’s “American Natural History.” J. C. Warren, in the second edition of his monograph on the mastodon, has some remarks on the food of this mastodon. In 1909 (Trans. N. Y. Acad. Sci., vol. XVIII, p. 147, plate), Dr. E. O. Hovey made 51a contribution to the history of this specimen. What became of the bones is not known.

13. Salisbury Mills, Orange County.—In 1903 (op. cit., p. 926), Clarke gives a brief account of a part of a mastodon skeleton which, in 1879, was found at this place, 9 miles southwest of Newburgh. It now forms the larger part of a mount in the American Museum of Natural History, New York. The present writer has no further information regarding this specimen.

14. New Windsor, Orange County.—In the Kansas City Review of Science and Industry, volume III, 1879, page 241, is an item concerning the finding of a mastodon at this place. Nearly all the bones were secured. It was stated that a black vein of muck about 20 feet thick rested on a bed of blue clay. The bones lay at depths varying from 2 to nearly 5 feet from the surface.

15. Newburgh, Orange County.—A considerable number of mastodons, some of them well preserved, have been discovered in the vicinity of Newburgh. The earliest one found was exhumed by Charles Wilson Peale, father of the artist Rembrandt Peale, in 1801. An account of the unearthing of this specimen is given by Rembrandt Peale in his “Historical Disquisition on the Mastodon,” London, 1803. The locality was probably south or southwest of Newburgh, for in another paper (Tilloch’s Philos. Mag., London, vol. XIV, 1802, p. 163) he states that it was in the neighborhood of New Windsor. Peale wrote that the specimen was found on the farm of John Masten. Peale’s account is reprinted in the second volume of Godman’s “American Natural History.” The whole of that part of the country is spoken of as abounding in morasses, solid enough for cattle to walk upon, and containing peat underlain by a shell marl. The mastodon remains had been found in an effort to get at the marl. It appears that the bones were met with at a depth of 6 or 7 feet, and were lying on the marl. Although the spring of 1801 was an unusually dry one, the digging was greatly hindered by the incoming water, and the work was finally abandoned. A considerable part of the skeleton was secured and sent to Philadelphia.

What is known as the Warren mastodon was discovered in 1845, on the farm of N. Brewster, somewhere in the vicinity of Newburgh. It is an unusually complete and well-preserved skeleton, and gave occasion to the waiting of Dr. John C. Warren’s monograph entitled “Description of a skeleton of the Mastodon giganteus.” Of this work there was an edition printed in 1852, a second in 1855.

The spot where this skeleton was buried is described as being situated in a small valley 300 or 400 feet in length, in which was a pond of water 30 or 40 feet in diameter. Around this the ground was wet and swampy. The summer of 1845 being unusually dry and the pond desiccated, a search was being made for marl. At a depth of about 4 feet the summit of the animal’s head was encountered. For many years this skeleton was in Cambridge, but is now the property of the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

According to Warren’s description (Monograph, 1st ed., pp. 5, 211, vignette), there was a deposit of about 2 feet of bog-peat, then about a 52foot of peat of a reddish color. This was underlain by a bed of shell-marl of a thickness not given, but probably about 2 or 3 feet, while below this was mud changing downward into clay. Some parts of the skeleton were in this mud; but the head, the right fore-leg, the spinal column, part of the ribs, the pelvis, and the tail were embedded in the marl. However, Dr. Charles A. Lee (21st Ann. Rep. State Cabinet, New York, p. 108) affirmed that these bones were not in the marl, but were wholly embedded in the muck or peat.

Dr. F. A. Lucas, of the American Museum of Natural History, New York, stated in 1902 (Science, vol. XVI, p. 169) that there is in Vassar College a skeleton of a mastodon which is supposed to have been found at Newburgh.

In the collection of the Brooklyn Institute, New York, is a partial skeleton which was found in 1899 on the farm of F. W. Schaeffer, 3 miles west of Newburgh. According to Dr. J. M. Clarke (Bull. 69, N. Y. State Mus., p. 926), the bones were found lying on a stony pavement under muck and marl. Osborn (Science, vol. X, 1899, p. 539) stated that the deposit is mostly dark and contains thoroughly decomposed vegetable matter mingled with a few stones and numerous remains of trees, some of which retain marks of beavers’ teeth. The deposit appeared to consist of three layers, indicating, as supposed, the building of three distinct beaver-dams.

Dr. John Mickleborough (Brooklyn Eagle, Mar. 9, 1901) stated that he had collected in this peat-swamp species of mollusks belonging to Limnæa, Physa, Planorbis, and Sphærium. He regarded it as certain that the swamp had been for a long time a fresh-water lake.

Eager (op. cit., p. 73) wrote that in 1838 a mastodon tooth had been found near Newburgh, on a farm owned by Samuel Dixon. No details.

Clarke (Bull. 69, N. Y. State Mus., p. 926) stated that in 1902 a cranium and some other parts of a mastodon had been found at Balmville, just north of Newburgh. The bones lay at a depth of from 2 to 8 feet, some in the muck and some in the marl below. Under the marl was found a boulder pavement.

In 1902 (Science, vol. XVI, pp. 594, 1033), Reginald Gordon gave accounts of the exhumation of a mastodon skeleton 1 mile north of the northern limit of Newburgh and 0.75 mile away from the Hudson. This certainly refers to the same mastodon as that reported by Clarke. The place is a swamp of about 2 acres and at a height of 180 feet above the level of the river. The bones were found 2 to 8 feet below the surface, a few of them inclosed in the muck, most of them in an underlying shell-marl. The muck averages 2 feet in thickness; the marl varies from a few inches to 12 feet in thickness. Beneath the marl a solid bottom is formed of pebbles and boulders.

16. Northeast of Coldenham, Orange County.—In 1847 (op. cit., p. 73), Eager wrote that in 1800 remains of a mastodon were found about 7 miles northeast from Montgomery, on or near a farm owned by Dr. George Graham. This statement was based on Dr. J. G. Graham’s letter (Med. Repos., vol. IV, p. 213). This must have been in the vicinity of the town named. Dr. J. G. Graham stated that a vertebra had been found here. This may have been in the marshes along Bushfield Creek.

5317. East Coldenham, Orange County.—Dr. James G. Graham (op. cit., p. 213) states that about 7 miles east of Montgomery (apparently about 5 miles west of Newburgh), a grinding-tooth and some hair of a dun color had been found at a depth of 4 or 5 feet. Possibly the supposed hair was some sort of vegetable matter. The place may have been on Bushfield Creek. Gordon (Science, n. s., vol. XVI, p. 1033) reported further the finding of large numbers of tree-trunks both in the muck and in the marl. Some mastodon bones were found resting on the trees. Red cedar and spruce were recognized. Some trees showed marks of the teeth of beavers.

18. Montgomery, Orange County.—Several more or less well-represented skeletons of mastodons have been discovered in the vicinity of Montgomery. So far as the writer knows, the first were met with in 1782. An account of the discovery was given by Rev. Robert Annan in 1793 (Mem. Amer. Acad. Arts, Sci., vol. II, pp. 160–164). The town was not named, but Mather (Geol. N. Y., 1st Dist., pt. 1, 1843, p. 202), on the authority of Dr. James G. Graham (Med. Repos., vol. IV, p. 213), stated that the place was 3 miles south of Ward’s Bridge, an old name of Montgomery. This would be near the village of Neelytown, and probably in the swamps along Beaver Creek. A ditch was being made in a deep and wet swamp, and some large teeth were thrown out. The description of these shows that they belonged to a mastodon. Bones were present, but mostly so far decayed that few could be saved.

Eager (op. cit., p. 73) stated that in 1803 mastodon remains had been found on a farm a mile east of Montgomery. These bones were dug out by Peale in 1805 or 1806, and Eager, then a boy, observed the work from day to day. Nothing was said about what remains were secured, or about the geological conditions; but Graham wrote that 3 or 4 ribs were found in a swamp at a depth of 8 feet.

R. Peale, writing in 1803 (“Disquisition on Mammoth,” pp. 27–29), reported that his father exhumed mastodon bones on a farm belonging to T. Barber, where 8 years before 4 ribs had been found in digging a pit. One may suppose that only one place is in question and that Eager was wrong in his date. Peale secured almost an entire set of ribs, two rotten tusks, 3 or 4 small teeth, and some other parts. At the bottom of the excavation there was a shell marl; above this there was probably peat or muck.

Dr. Graham further stated that about 3 miles east of Ward’s Bridge (now Montgomery) some other bones had been discovered. This was quite certainly near the village of Berea, where swamps are indicated on the topographical map of that quadrangle.

19. Hamptonburg, Orange County.—Eager (op. cit., p. 73) states that in 1845 mastodon remains had been found in this town on the farm of Jesse C. Cleve, but no further information was furnished.

20. Bullville, Orange County.—Eager (op. cit., p. 73) says that in 1794 remains of a mastodon had been found about 5 miles west of Montgomery, just east of the residence of Archibald Crawford, and near the line of the Cochecton turnpike. It appears probable that the place was east of Bullville on the Dwaar Kill. What was found was not stated.

In 1830 (Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., vol. III, p. 478, plate XVII), J. D. Godman described a skull of a mastodon which, he said, had been disinterred 54a short time previously by Archibald Crawford, about 12 miles from Newburgh. Besides the head, some bones from the trunk and limbs were secured. Whether or not two discoveries had been made, and whether, if two, the localities were near each other, it is now impossible to say with confidence.

Somewhere about Bullville, possibly farther north or northeast, the elder Peale (R. Peale, Hist. Disquis., p. 30) secured some mastodon bones. In arriving at the place, he crossed Wallkill River at the falls (Walden) and “ascended into a rudely cultivated country about 20 miles from the Hudson.” The bones were found in a morass on the farm of Peter Millspaw. The lower jaw found there was mentioned and figured by Hays (Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., vol. IV, 1834, p. 321).

21. Scotchtown, Orange County.—On the page just quoted, Eager reported that in 1844 some part of a mastodon had been found at the place named. In his work on Mastodon giganteus (first edition, pages 110–117, plates XVI, XVIII, XIX), Dr. J. C. Warren described a very complete skull which had been found at this place. He stated that the magnificent head is remarkable for its size, whiteness, and the distinctness of its sutures. It is known as the “Shawangunk head.” Warren wrote that the strata covering it were: first, gravel; second, marl; third, a layer of peat hard enough to be turned in a lathe.

Eager, in his “History of Orange County,” on page 348, stated that remains of Mastodon maximus were, in 1843, dug up from a marl-bed on the farm of William Connor, about 0.25 mile from Scotchtown, and were then in the cabinet of Professor Emmons, of Albany. This was quite certainly the “Shawangunk mastodon.”

22. Otisville, Orange County.—In Yale University there is a nearly complete skeleton of a mastodon which was described and figured by Professor O. C. Marsh in 1892 (Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. XLIV, p. 350, plate VIII), but no statement was made as to its origin. Clarke (Bull. 69, New York State Museum, p. 925) stated that a mastodon found in 1874 was purchased by Professor Marsh. Professor R. S. Lull (Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. XXV, 1908, p. 193) refers to a mastodon at Yale which came from Otisville. In 1914 (Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. XXXVII, p. 330) he presented some notes on the anatomy.

A newspaper account of the discovery of this skeleton stated that the region of the stomach contained very fresh-looking, large leaves of odd form, and blades of strange grass of extreme length, and from 1 to 3 inches in width. It seems probable that a good deal of this was pure imagination. The vegetation which flourished there at the time the mastodon was living was certainly not different from that of to-day.

23. Shawangunk, near Wallkill, Ulster County.—Dr. James G. Graham, writing in 1801 (Med. Repos. New York, vol. IV, p. 213), reported that “a skeleton of a mastodon had been discovered about 3 miles east of his house, in the town of Shawangunk.” The bones lay about 10 feet from the surface and were in a very sound state. Some parts of the head, much broken, were among the parts secured.

24. Ellenville, Ulster County.—In 1861 (14th Ann. Rep. State Cabinet, pp. 7, 15) the discovery at this place of some mastodon remains was briefly 55reported. A large tusk and parts of the skull, with teeth, were secured. The swamp is composed of about 2 feet of peat and 3 feet of marl, resting on a base of clay. The bones were lying in the marl. In 1871 (21st Ann. Rep., etc., p. 128) further mention of these bones was made. Clarke (Bull. 69, State Mus., p. 927) mentions these remains and adds that there is also a smaller tusk in the museum.

In Rutgers College, New Brunswick, New Jersey, the writer has seen a tusk about 10 feet long, with a considerably spiral form, which is said to have been found at Ellenville. It may, however, be the tusk of an elephant.

25. Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County.—In 1854 (Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. XVIII, p. 447), an editorial paragraph stated that a skeleton of a mastodon had been found buried in a marsh about 2 miles east of Poughkeepsie. It had then been only partly exhumed. Clarke (Bull. 69, State Mus., p. 927) quotes from a letter written by Professor W. B. Dwight, who stated that about 40, perhaps 45, years previously mastodon bones had been found in a small pond on the “Creek Road,” from 2 to 3 miles northeast of the city named. Probably the same skeleton was referred to by both writers. Clarke stated further that there is in the State Museum a vertebra of a mastodon from Poughkeepsie.

26. Between Red Bridge and Wurtsboro, Sullivan County.—In 1828 (Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. XIV, p. 31), J. Van Rensselaer reported that remains of a mastodon had been found by workmen digging the Delaware and Hudson Canal, near the point named. A considerable part of the skeleton had been secured. Mather (Geol. 1st Dist., p. 233) adds that this was found in a peat-bog.

27. Claverack, Columbia County.—Somewhere near this place, not improbably on the opposite side of the river, in Greene County, were found apparently the first mastodon remains discovered in this country. In his “History of Orange County, New York,” Eager published a letter addressed in 1706 by Governor Joseph Dudley to Cotton Mather. In this he told of having secured a tooth which was probably a penultimate molar of a mastodon. Dudley regarded it as the eye-tooth of a giant who had been destroyed by the flood. The locality was given as about 30 miles below Albany and was mentioned as Claverack. It appears that another tooth had been presented the year before to Lord Cornbury. In the account of this, found in a letter by Lord Cornbury, the locality is given as 20 miles below Albany. Clarke (op. cit., p. 928) thinks that this was probably near the present New Baltimore; but a letter from Abeel, recorder of Albany County, published by Clarke, shows that a man was sent to Claverack to make further search. It appears as if 2 teeth had been discovered at the same place near the town. Abeel stated that the tooth had been found near the bank of the river, and that other bones were met with 15 feet below the surface. It appears not improbable that these bones were buried in clays laid down during the Late Wisconsin submergence or in deposits overlying these clays.

28. Freehold, Greene County.—Clarke (op. cit., p. 927) stated that there is in the American Museum of Natural History, New York, an atlas of a mastodon which was found at Freehold.

5629. Greeneville, Greene County.—In 1843 (Geol. 4th Dist., p. 367), James Hall stated that he had visited this locality, where mastodon bones had been found embedded in a fresh-water marl. Lyell (Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. XII, 1843, p. 127) visited the locality with Hall and stated that the mastodon bones occurred in swamps at a depth of 4 or 5 feet.

In 1843, Mather (Geol. 1st Dist., p. 44) wrote that bones supposed to belong to an elephant had been found at this place. It is doubtful whether the remains reported by Mather and Hall are those of an elephant or of a mastodon.

30. Coeymans, Albany County.—Mather (Geol. 4th Dist., 1843, p. 44) recorded the finding of mastodon remains on Helderberg Mountain, on the farm of a Mr. Shear, 4 or 5 miles west of Hudson River, in the township of Coeymans. The remains were discovered in a bed of shell-marl, in the bank of a marsh. A tusk was taken to Albany. It was supposed that most of the skeleton was left in the ground.

31. Cohoes, Albany County.—In the collection of the State Museum, at Albany, there is a mounted skeleton of a mastodon discovered in 1866. It was first announced by Robert Safely (Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. XLII, 1866, p. 426) and soon afterward noticed by Marsh (Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. XLIII, 1866, p. 115). It formed the subject of an essay by James Hall (21st Ann. Rep. New York State Cabinet, 1871, pp. 98–148, plates III-VII) and was further mentioned by Clarke in 1903 (op. cit., pp. 929–930). Portions of it were found in two large pot-holes on the shore of Mohawk River. For the facts, and for Hall’s and Clarke’s conclusions, the reader must consult the publications cited. G. K. Gilbert (21st Ann. Rep. State Cabinet, 1871, pp. 129–148) discussed the geological conditions at Cohoes. He concluded (p. 140) that the pot-holes were not made during a glacial period, but were of preglacial age. Dr. H. L. Fairchild, who has studied the history of the Mohawk Valley more thoroughly than anyone else, has expressed in a letter to the present writer the opinion that the pot-holes are post-glacial formations. The matter is further discussed on page 297. Inasmuch as the glacial ice was not far away, it appears to the present writer that the geological stage may better be regarded as Late Wisconsin.

Professor Fairchild’s plate 16 of Bulletin No. 160 of the State Museum of New York gives the position of the Wisconsin ice-sheet in New York at the time that it had just withdrawn from the region about Cohoes. His plate 17 presents a later stage, when the upper part of the Hudson Valley was occupied by Lake Albany.

Unfortunately, no evidences of other animal life, excepting the beaver, were found with the mastodon at Cohoes. Marsh, in his notice of the discovery, gave a list of the trees recognized in the pot-holes. There were white pine, hemlock, black spruce, larch, swamp maple, and white birch.

In the American Museum of Natural History, New York, there is a lower jaw of a mastodon with second and third true molars, right and left, which is said to have come from Cohoes.

32. Copenhagen, Lewis County.—In 1884 (Trans. Linn. Soc. N. Y., p. 47), Dr. C. Hart Merriam stated that there had been found in 1877, in a marl bed about a mile west of Copenhagen, a tusk measuring 5 feet 9 57inches in length. It was purchased for the State Cabinet. It could not be determined whether this had belonged to an elephant or a mastodon.

33. Center Lisle, Broome County.—In the Watkins Glen-Catatonk folio No. 169 of the U. S. Geological Survey, on page 28, Dr. Ralph S. Tarr stated that remains of a mastodon had been found a few hundred yards north of this town, in a boggy place where a spring emerges from the base of a gravel terrace. He did not tell what parts had been found. He remarked that one could not be certain whether the bones had been washed out of the gravel or had come from an animal which had mired there. In geological age it must be referred to the last half of the Wisconsin stage.

34. Brookton, Tompkins County.—In the American Naturalist, volume V, 1871, page 314, C. Fred Hartt gave an account of the discovery of mastodon bones at Mott’s Corners, on Six-mile Creek. This is the former name of the present village of Brookton. Only 2 teeth and some fragments of bones were secured. The locality is situated in a deep valley of the creek, which had once been filled with drift, and through this the creek had cut down to solid rock. Where the bones were found was a small peat-bog consisting of a layer of peat varying from a few inches to 2 feet. This was full of sticks, pine knots, bark, etc., more or less decayed. Below this peat was a layer, a few inches thick, composed of clay mixed with pebbles and pieces of shale. In this were the teeth and decayed bones. The whole was underlain by drift materials. Tarr, as cited above, stated that mastodon remains had been found in a swamp in the valley bottom at Brookton. He did not say when the discovery was made, nor what was found. It is not unlikely that the two cases are the same.

In 1871 (Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. II, p. 58), Dr. Burt G. Wilder reported that 5 teeth and many fragmentary bones had been found near Ithaca, in a deposit of modified drift. The writer has been informed by Miss Pearl Sheldon, of Cornell University, that these are the same remains as those reported by Professor Hartt.

The mastodon found at Brookton could hardly have lived there before the stage when the waters that gathered at the southern edge of the retreating ice were reaching the sea by way of Mohawk and Hudson Rivers.

35. Pony Hollow, Tompkins County.—In 1915 (Science, vol. XLI, pp. 98–99), Pearl Sheldon, of the Department of Geology in Cornell University, reported that a tusk, probably of a mastodon, had been found at Pony Hollow, 12 miles southwest of Ithaca, on the farm of Bert Drake. This place, as shown on the Ithaca Quadrangle topographical sheet, is in the southwest corner of the county. As the writer is informed by Miss Sheldon, it is on Cantor Creek, near its junction with West Branch. The tusk was met with in a gravel-pit at a depth of 24 feet. The radius of curvature was between 2 and 3 feet, the circumference from 10 to 13 inches. It may have been the tusk of an elephant. The pit was in the base of an extensive terrace which follows the valley-wall high above the outwash gravel-plain occupying the floor of the valley. The reporter thought that the terrace was not later in origin than the end of the ice occupation of the valley, and might be earlier.

58Miss Sheldon informed the writer that the terrace which contained the mastodon tusk is too high in the valley to have been formed by water backed up against the retreating ice-front. Furthermore, the locality is south of the divide. It was suggested that during the retreat of the ice the southward-flowing water in the Pony Hollow basin was backed up somewhat by the ice in the Seneca basin. At any rate, the terrace and the mastodon contained in it belong to the latter part of the Wisconsin ice stage.

36. Elmira, Chemung County.—Dr. John M. Clarke (60th Ann. Rep. New York State Mus., p. 59) referred to reports of the eighteenth century to the effect that tusks of proboscideans had been found in Chemung River, one of them just below Elmira. It is very probable that some or all of these had belonged to the mastodon.

Apparently all that can be said about the geological age of these proboscideans is that they lived during or after the last half of the Wisconsin drift stage.

37. Lodi, Seneca County.—In the American Museum of Natural History, New York, there are second and third upper mastodon molars, recorded as having been found at Lodi. The town is on the eastern shore of Seneca Lake. This animal belonged to the last half of the Wisconsin stage, or to a later one. Possibly it was living there at the early period when the impounded waters of the Finger Lake region were discharging through Susquehanna River.

38. Macedon, Wayne County.—Dr. J. M. Clarke, in 1903 (Bull. 69, N. Y. State Mus., p. 930) reported for Professor H. L. Fairchild, that there are in the University of Rochester a few mastodon teeth from this place. There is no information on record about the geology of the place where they were found. The animal belonged to a relatively late stage of the Pleistocene and may have lived close to the beginning of the Recent. The glacier had withdrawn near to or within the basin of Lake Ontario.

39. Seneca Castle, Ontario County.—Professor Edward Hitchcock jr., in 1885 (Science, vol. VI, p. 450), announced the discovery of what was supposed to be remains of mastodon at the bottom of a peat morass, lately drained, at the town named. This place is near Flint Creek. No teeth and no part of the skull were found. The remains were taken to Amherst College. With these bones was found also an antler of an elk. In a letter written December 21, 1918, Dr. F. B. Loomis, of Amherst, states that he regards these bones as those of an elephant.

In Dr. J. M. Clarke’s report of 1903, on page 931, Mr. H. J. Peck gave an account of this mastodon, together with a plate representing the way in which the bones were scattered. They were found at a depth of about 3 feet and are shown to have been lying in a deposit of clay and marl, above which came in succession clay and sand, sand, peat, and muck. Beneath the bones were, in order, sand, blue clay, sandy clay, and a thin layer of sand resting on boulder clay.

The stage at or after which this mastodon or elephant lived was probably that represented by Fairchild’s plate 38.

5940. Perkinsville (Portway), Steuben County.—Dr. John M. Clarke, in 1908 (61st Ann. Rep. New York State Mus., vol. I, p. 44), reported the discovery of a part of a skeleton of a mastodon in a large swamp 0.75 mile north of Portway railroad station. The swamp occupies a depression in a mass of morainic drift. At the surface is from 6 to 12 inches of black muck, beneath which is a bed of nearly white marl from 6 inches to 6 feet in thickness. The bones were lying 4 or 5 rods from the border of the swamp. Those found were in a fine state of preservation. Among them was one ramus of the lower jaw with teeth.

This and the following specimen lived after the Wisconsin glacier had withdrawn about halfway from its terminal moraine to the shore of Lake Ontario.

41. Wayland, Steuben County.—In 1874 (Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. XVII, p. 91), a report by Dr. J. G. Hunt, of Philadelphia, was presented, which dealt with the contents of the stomach of a mastodon said to have been found at Wayland. No statement was made as to the skeleton of the animal, or the exact place where it had been discovered. No remains of trees of any kind were detected, but stems and leaves of mosses, confervoid filaments, a fragment supposed to belong to a rush, woody tissue, and bark of herbaceous plants.

42. Pittsford, Monroe County.—In 1831 (Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. XIX, p. 358), Mr. J. A. Guernsey, of Pittsford, wrote that a part of a tusk, supposed to belong to a mastodon, had been found on the bank of Irondequoit Creek, 2.5 miles east of the town. The part secured was 7.5 feet long, and the whole tusk was thought to have been about 9 feet long. The figure accompanying the description seems to indicate a mastodon tusk rather than that of an elephant, but one can not be certain about the matter. A much decayed cervical vertebra also was found.

James Hall, in 1843 (Geol. 4th Dist., p. 364), reported that in the town of Perinton there had been found in the bank of a small stream, in gravel and sand, a tusk and several teeth. This place appears to be, or to have been, very near Pittsford. At Perinton, too, was found a tooth of the elephant Elephas primigenius, as mentioned on another page. It was near here probably that there were found parts of two skeletons of the peccary Platygonus compressus, as noted in its proper place.

Inasmuch as all these animals, as well as those found nearer Rochester, were buried in deposits overlying Wisconsin drift, they must have lived after the withdrawal of the ice beyond Rochester, and at a time when the region had taken the present aspect or nearly so.

43. Rochester, Monroe County.—In 1842 (Nat. Hist. N. Y. Mamm., p. 103), J. E. De Kay stated that in 1817 remains of mastodon had been found in Rochester, 4 feet below the surface, in a hollow or water-course. He did not give his authority for this statement. James Hall, in 1843 (Geol. 4th Dist., p. 364), reported that in 1838, during the excavation of the Genesee Valley Canal, at its junction with Sophia street, various bones of a mastodon had been discovered. They are said to have been intermingled with gravel and covered by clay and loam, above which was a deposit of shell marl. The bones were placed in the State Museum at 60Albany. C. D. (Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. XXXIII, 1837, p. 201) says that these bones were lying on and in a hard body of blue clay and about 2 feet above the limestone, which itself was polished. Clarke (Bull. 69, New York State Mus., p. 931) reported, on the authority of H. L. Ward, that a few remains of mastodon had been found at Mount Hope cemetery. In the collection of the University of Rochester is a proboscidean rib 837 mm. long, which is labeled as having been found January 27, 1913, at the corner of Charlotte boulevard and Miller street. It lay in gravel 12 feet below the surface. It seems to the writer to belong to Mammut americanum.

44. Scottsburg, Livingston County.—Clarke (Bull. 69, etc., p. 932) reported that 20 bones and various fragments of bones of a mastodon had been collected here by F. H. Bradley and H. A. Green, and presented to the Yale collection by R. S. Fellows. No additional information was furnished. These remains include a hindermost lower molar (Cat. No. 11714) that had not yet come into use. The animal may be supposed to have lived during or after the last half of the Wisconsin stage.

45. Fowlerville, Livingston County.—Dr. John M. Clarke (Bull. 69, etc., p. 932) stated, on the authority of Mr. H. J. Peck, that 3 or 4 teeth, tusks, and other bones, badly broken, had been found, in 1886, in an excavation on the bank of Genesee River, 80 feet above the water. No further information has been recorded.

From Dr. I. Edward Line, Rochester, N. Y., the writer has received a photograph of an upper right penultimate molar, little worn, which he reports as having been found in 1887, near Genesee River, on the road from Avon to Fowlerville. It was discovered in a marshy part of the farm of Robert Boyd and was exhumed by the late Dr. William Nishet, of Avon. Other teeth, a tusk, and fragments of bone were found, some of which, Dr. Line states, were taken to Harvard University by Professor F. W. Putnam. Quite certainly this was the same mastodon as that reported by Mr. Peck. The animal could not have lived here until after a stage represented by Fairchild’s plate 37 (Bull. 127, New York State Mus.).

46. Geneseo, Livingston County.—In 1827 (Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. XII, p. 380), Jeremiah Van Rensselaer reported that, in 1826, the skull, tusks, lower jaws with teeth, pelvis, and many other bones had been found at Geneseo. Later (1841) Lyell and James Hall made excavations at the same place, but discovered only some fragments of the skull and of other bones. These were at a depth of about 5 feet and were mixed with marl and yet existing fresh-water shells. Over all was a layer of muck (Lyell, “Travels in North America,” vol. I, p. 55). Hall (Geol. 4th Dist., p. 363, fig. 173) published a figure of one of the teeth, a hindermost molar. The remark as to the geological age of the Fowlerville specimen applies to this one.

47. Nunda, Livingston County.—Clarke (Bull. 69, p. 932) stated, on the authority of Charles E. Beecher, that 10 bones and fragments of a mastodon had been secured here, and presented to Yale University collection. No exact locality and no geological information were furnished. The geological age is quite certainly late Wisconsin or still later.

48. Belvidere, Allegany County.—In the American Geologist, vol. XXXIII, 1904, page 60, an anonymous note states that some mastodon remains, 3 61ribs and 4 vertebræ, had been unearthed at this place by James Johnson, of Bradford, and Alban Stewart, of the Smithsonian Institution. Nothing was said as to the exact locality and geological conditions. The time of the animal’s life could hardly have been earlier than the last half of the Wisconsin stage.

49. Pike, Wyoming County.—In 1876 (Guide to Genesee Valley Mus., Letchworth Park, Castile, N. Y., 1907, pp. 5–6), a part of a skull, the tusks, a few vertebræ, and some foot-bones were found on the farm of Charles Dennis, on the outskirts of the village of Pike. They were met with in making a ditch and hence were probably in a marsh. Their geological age is that of the last half of the Wisconsin stage or later.

50. Attica, Wyoming County.—In 1887 (6th Ann. Rep. State Geologist, for 1886, p. 34), J. M. Clarke described briefly the finding of supposed mastodon bones at this place. A tusk had been encountered while a trench for a water-main was being dug on Genesee street. In 1888 (41st Ann. Rep. State Mus., for 1887, pp. 388–390, plate), Clarke reported the results of further digging. The tusk was exhumed, as well as two ribs and a fragment of the zygomatic arch. Nothing was found that distinguished the remains from those of an elephant. The fragments were in a bog-hole and scattered over a space about 20 by 25 feet. Under the made ground was first a layer of loam 5 inches thick, then came in succession 1 foot 2 inches of clayey muck and 1 foot 5 inches of unlaminated clay and an undetermined thickness of laminated clay. The bones lay in the unlaminated clay, at a depth of 2 feet 6 inches from the natural surface. With the bones was what was thought to be an ankle-bone of an elk. At a distance of 75 feet was another bog-hole, 75 feet in diameter, which was filled with muck lying on compact laminated clay. The muck had a maximum thickness of 4 feet. At the deepest place was found a piece of pottery and, beneath and around it, about 30 fragments of thoroughly burned charcoal.

The proboscidean remains here described must have been buried after (how long after one can not say) the Wisconsin glacier had retired about two-thirds the way from its southward limit to the shore of Lake Ontario.

51. Leroy, Genesee County.—J. E. De Kay, in 1842 (Zool. N. Y., Mamm., p. 104), stated that in 1841 a mastodon tooth weighing 2 pounds had been found in a bed of marl 3 miles south of Leroy. No other information appears to have been recorded.

The mastodons found here and at Stafford and Batavia could have lived only after the ice-sheet had retired beyond these places. About this time the waters of the Finger Lake region found an outlet westward to the Mississippi by way of lakes Warren and Chicago.

52. Stafford, Genesee County.—James Hall, in 1843 (Geol. 4th Dist., p. 364), reported that some years previously a small molar tooth had been found at this place. It was beneath muck and upon a deposit of clay and sand. There was found also a quantity of hair-like confervæ, of a dun-brown color, which resembled hair so closely that a close examination was necessary to determine its real nature.

53. Batavia, Genesee County.—In 1904 (Bull. 69, New York State Museum, p. 932), Clarke reported for H. L. Ward, that in 1897 two tusks, 62a part of a skull with teeth, several vertebræ, and ribs had been found here. Nothing more is known about this case.

54. Holley, Orleans County.—In 1843, James Hall (Geol. 4th Dist., p. 364) reported that during the excavation of the Erie Canal, a large molar tooth was found in a swamp near Holley. This, according to Clarke, was about 1820. At the earliest time assignable, this mastodon lived after the Wisconsin glacier had withdrawn nearly into the basin of Lake Ontario. It may have had its existence nearly up to the Recent epoch.

55. Medina, Orleans County.—In the Buffalo Society of Natural History is a part of the left ramus of the lower jaw of a mastodon, labeled as having been found in a swamp near Medina. It contains the second and third true molars. The remark about the geological age of the Holley mastodon is applicable to this one.

56. Niagara, Niagara County.—In 1842 (Zool. N. Y., Mamm., p. 104), De Kay stated that a mastodon tooth had been found in digging a mill-race on Goat Island, 12 or 13 feet below the surface. Lyell, in 1843 (Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. XII, p. 127), alluded to the occurrence of remains of mastodon in a fresh-water formation on the right bank of the Niagara River at the Falls. The formation appears to have consisted of gravel. These are possibly the same remains as those mentioned by De Kay. Hall (Geol. 4th Dist., p. 364) stated that the deposit was a fine gravel and loam containing fresh-water shells, and evidently of fluviatile origin. These deposits were noted by W. E. Logan (Geol. Canada, 1863, pp. 913–914). On the Canadian side of the gorge below the Falls, 16 species of fresh-water mollusks were found in the sand, evidently where they had lived.

At the museum of Davis Brothers, at Niagara Falls, Mr. B. U. Davis told the writer that he owned 2 mastodon teeth which had been found in digging for the foundations of the Tower Hotel, which faces the Falls park.

Mastodons could have lived where Niagara Falls is now located only after the Wisconsin ice-sheet had retired far enough to permit the waters of Lake Iroquois to fall somewhat below those of Lake Erie, the shrinkage of the latter to its present basin, and the formation of dry land or land not too swampy around the present Niagara Falls.

57. Hinsdale, Cattaraugus County.—Hall (op. cit., p. 364) stated that at this place a tusk, with some horns of deer, had been found in gravel and sand, 16 feet below the surface. Clarke (Bull. 69, etc., p. 933) mentions this case and suggests that the antlers were possibly those of the elk. The tusk may quite as well have been that of an elephant.

Lyell (Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. XII, 1843, p. 127) referred to this discovery as showing mastodon bones at the highest elevation known at that time, 1,500 feet above the sea.

58. Conewango, Cattaraugus County.—In 1908 (60th Ann. Rep. State Mus., p. 60), Clarke reported that part of a mastodon skeleton, consisting of from 40 to 50 bones, mostly vertebræ and foot-bones, had been unearthed in 1906 from the bank of the State ditch along Conewango Creek, close to the boundary between Cattaraugus and Chautauqua Counties. The remains lay on a shelf of hard clay. They were discovered and reported by C. N. Hoard and W. H. Hoard. The locality was probably not far from the town 63indicated. This animal is to be referred to the last half of the Wisconsin glacial stage; that is, to the Wabash stage.

59. Buffalo, Erie County.—In 1809 (Phila. Med. and Phys. Jour., vol. II, p. 157), Dr. B. S. Barton reported that a tooth of a mastodon had been found on Buffalo Creek, near its mouth. Of this mastodon one can only say that it lived late in Wisconsin times, not earlier probably than when Lake Iroquois became the immediate predecessor of Lake Ontario.

60. Jamestown, Chautauqua County.—In 1872 (Amer. Naturalist, vol. VI, p. 178), Mr. T. A. Cheney announced the finding of parts of 2 skeletons of the mastodon, in a swamp about a mile north of Jamestown. One was a small animal, probably a young one, the larger one an adult. Of the latter, 6 teeth in the lower jaw, the tusks, and various other bones were secured. The remains were lying in a soil composed of peat and marl, at a depth of 4 feet. A great mass, 8 or 9 bushels, of broken twigs was found and taken to be the contents of the animal’s stomach. This mastodon belonged to the last half of the Wisconsin glacial stage.

61. Westfield, Chautauqua County.—Dr. J. M. Clarke, in 1903 (Bull. 69, etc., p. 933), reported the discovery of a part of a skeleton at Westfield. It was on the property of Mrs. Alice Peacock, alongside the Nickel Plate Railroad. A tusk, 6 feet 2 inches long and highly curved, 17 ribs, 8 pelvic and lumbar vertebræ, a patella, and parts of the scapula and pelvis were secured. The bones lay on a pavement of heavy boulders and under several feet of black clayey muck. This animal could have lived here only after the Wisconsin ice-sheet had withdrawn within, or nearly within, the basin of Lake Erie.

NEW JERSEY.

(Maps 5, 6–A.)

1. Mannington Township, Salem County.—In Rutgers College, New Brunswick, New Jersey, is a mounted mastodon said to have been found on the Hackett farm, Chestnut Hill, in Mannington. This township is northwest of the town of Salem. It is stated that about 75 per cent of the bones are present in the mounted skeleton; the missing parts are restored in plaster or some other material. Rhoads (Mamm, Penn. N. J., 1903, p. 235) was informed by Professor Valiant that this skeleton was excavated from a bed of gray marl, at a depth of from 6 to 8 feet below the surface. According to Lewis and Kümmel’s geological map of New Jersey, 1912, this region appears to be overlain by the Cape May formation (see also Salisbury and Knapp, vol. VIII, Final Rep. Geol. Surv. New Jersey, p. 194).

2. Harrisonville, Gloucester County.—In 1869, Cope (Cook’s Geol. New Jersey, p. 740) stated that a mastodon had been found at this place, but no details were furnished. Harrisonville is on Oldman’s Creek, and along this are distributed, according to the map above cited, materials belonging to the Pensauken formation. Bridgeton, Pensauken, and Cape May deposits are, however, not far away (Salisbury and Knapp, op. cit., pp. 31, 96, 97, 194, 198).

643. Mullica Hill, Gloucester County.—In Cook’s “Geology of New Jersey,” Cope reported also that mastodon remains had been found at Mullica Hill, on Raccoon Creek, but here again no details were given. Following the map cited, and Salisbury and Knapp, page 194, we find Cape May deposits at the town, but Pensauken is not far away, and it is not known exactly where the mastodon remains were met with.

4. Woodbury, Gloucester County.—Mr. Samuel N. Rhoads (Mamm. Penn. N. J., 1903, p. 235) recorded the discovery of a mastodon near Woodbury. It was found on Mantua Creek and was in the possession of Dr. J. C. Curry, of Woodbury. Mantua Creek flows south of Woodbury, about 2.5 miles distant. On the map cited the region is indicated as being covered mostly by Pensauken materials, but there is some Cape May (Salisbury and Knapp, pp. 100, 191). The Cape May is on a lower level along the streams.

From Dr. Curry the writer learns that the remains of this mastodon passed into the possession of Mr. Herbert Twells, of Woodbury, New Jersey. Neither of these gentlemen is able to furnish any further information.

5. Pemberton, Burlington County.—Professor E. D. Cope (Cook’s Geol. New Jersey, 1869, p. 740) stated that mastodon remains had been found at Pemberton. Previously, Conrad (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila. vol. I, 1832, p. 11) had reported that bones and teeth of this species had been found here. In the collection of the Academy at Philadelphia are a part of a skull and some bones and teeth which were collected at Pemberton in 1887 by J. C. Saltar and E. McConnell. Rhoads (Mamm. Penn. N. J., p. 234) mentioned this skeleton and said that it was exposed in the bed of a small stream. Mr. J. Coleman Saltar, now of Milford, Delaware, has kindly replied to the present writer’s inquiries. He says that the skeleton was found about 1.5 miles northwest of Pemberton, in the bank of a small stream lying partly in the water, partly embedded in the bank. The flood-plain is perhaps about 10 feet below the tilled land along the stream. On the flood-plain is recent silt. Below this appears to be a Pleistocene deposit which contains vegetable débris, including pine cones. The skeleton was in this layer, about 3 feet below the surface. Professor Valiant informed Mr. Rhoads that another skull was found, a good many years ago, in a swamp near Pemberton, and for a long time was used as a door-step before its real nature was discovered. Mr. Saltar, in the letter referred to above, stated that his understanding has been that this skull was found along the same stream and was used as a stepping-stone in crossing, until some progressive person sought to change its position.

In the collection of the Academy, at Philadelphia, are 2 good teeth and parts of 2 others which are said to have been found at Pemberton. They are credited to G. C. Forsyth. At Princeton University is a nearly complete lower jaw, No. 8173, of a mastodon which was collected at Pemberton.

Pemberton is on Rancocas River. In Salisbury and Knapp’s work of 1917, on page 184, it is stated that sands which seem to belong to the Cape May are found along the North branch of the Rancocas near Pemberton.

6. Trenton, Mercer County.—Mr. S. N. Rhoads, in 1903 (Mamm. Penn. N. J., p. 235) stated that there is in Rutgers College Museum a specimen of 65tusk of mastodon which was reported to have been found in 1878 associated with stone implements in the Trenton gravels, 12 feet below the surface. Cook (Rep. Stat. Geol. New Jersey, for 1878, p. 15) stated that the tusk was found at a depth of 14 feet, with the gravel and stones partly stratified over it. There may be a question whether the tusk belonged to a mastodon or to an elephant. Professor S. Lockwood (Pop. Sci. Monthly, vol. XXLI, p. 344) wrote that he had seen a tusk, doubtless the one mentioned above, taken from the Trenton gravels. Whether or not this tusk was found immediately at Trenton was not stated, but Cook reported that it was found at Trenton.

7. Freehold, Monmouth County.—Several mastodons have been reported from this place. Professor Samuel Lockwood, in 1882 (Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. XXIV, p. 291; Pop. Sci. Monthly, vol. XXII, p. 341; Proc. Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sci., vol. XXXI, 1883, p. 365) reported that he had exhumed a skeleton of a mastodon in a peat-swamp 2 miles west of the town. It rested on hardpan, beneath the peat. Over the neck were sticks which had been cut by beavers. Lockwood’s complete account was published in the Popular Science Monthly, as quoted. The skeleton was in very bad condition. The lower jaw is not mentioned. According to the New Jersey map cited, the region about Freehold is occupied by the Pensauken formation; according to Salisbury and Knapp the identity of this is not wholly certain. It is impossible to say when the skeleton had fallen there. Some one, probably G. H. Cook (Geol. New Jersey, 1868, p. 741), stated that bones of mastodon had been found near Freehold by O. R. Willis. Professor Valiant has told the writer of a milk-tooth of a mastodon found at “Hartshorne’s mills” (Cook’s Geol. New Jersey, 1868, p. 781).

8. Englishtown, Monmouth County.—Mr. S. N. Rhoads (Mamm. Penn., N. J., p. 235) stated that Professor Valiant had informed him that remains of mastodon had been found in marl at Englishtown. The relations of the remains to the marl one can not now learn. According to the New Jersey geologists, the region about the place is occupied by Pensauken; but one can not be certain about the geological age of the mastodon.

9. Marlboro, Monmouth County.—George H. Cook (Geol. New Jersey, 1868, p. 741) reported that a portion of a jaw of a mastodon had been found in a mill-race at Marlboro; but when this happened we are not told. Rhoads, as cited, probably refers to the same specimen, where he mentions a ramus of a young mastodon containing the milk dentition. This is in Rutgers College. The gravels on the hills about Marlboro are referred by the New Jersey geologists to the Pensauken. It is not unlikely, however, that Cape May deposits are to be met with at lower levels.

10. Long Branch, Monmouth County.—A number of mastodons have been found in the vicinity of Long Branch. In 1824 (Ann. Lyc. Nat. Hist., N. Y., vol. I, pp. 143–147), De Kay, Van Rensselaer, and Cooper gave a detailed account of the exhumation of a mastodon skeleton on a farm called “Poplar,” 3 miles southwest of Long Branch, and 2 miles from the sea-beach. The skeleton was found near the border of a marsh and so close to the surface that it was discovered by a molar sticking out of the turf. The vertebral column lay only about 8 or 10 inches below the surface. These bones, 66including the skull, which lay near the surface, were more or less decayed. The tusks were not found at all. The bones were all buried in a stratum of black earth about 8 feet thick. Below this was a bed of sand, with rolled pebbles, of unequal thickness, but generally thicker than the bed of muck. Under this again was found a bed of marl of undetermined age. The impression received by the investigators was that the animal had sunken into the marsh and died in a standing position. In such a case, the bog had been formed before the animal was mired in it. There is an account by Van Rensselaer in the American Journal of Science, volume XI, 1826, page 246, of the finding of this skeleton. Godman (Amer. Nat. Hist., vol. II) gave an account of the same discovery. Cook (Geol. New Jersey, 1868, p. 741) thought that the bones had become exposed to view through subsidence of the peaty layer, due to its having been drained.

James Hall (Geol. 4th Dist., N. Y., p. 365) states that he had assisted in exhuming a mastodon at Long Branch which was in a natural vertical position, his body supported by the turf soil or black earth and his feet resting upon a gravelly bottom.

Lockwood (Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. XXIV, 1882, p. 294; Pop. Sci. Monthly, vol. XXII, p. 344) reported that he had known of 2 teeth of the mastodon which at distant times had been taken up at sea off Long Branch.

While it is very natural to refer to the latest Pleistocene these mastodons which lie so near the surface, it must not be concluded with too much assurance that they do belong to the Late Wisconsin. The discovery of horse-teeth in the Navesink Hills and of Megatherium at Long Branch shows that the older Pleistocene deposits are present in this region.

11. Navesink Hills, Monmouth County.—In 1869 (Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., vol. VII, p. 261), Leidy reported that remains of the mastodon had been found in this region, associated with a vertebra and some teeth of a fossil horse. This was based on Mitchill’s statement (Cat. Organ. Remains, p. 7) that he had a part of a tibia of a mastodon.

12. Manasquan Inlet, Monmouth County.—In 1882 (Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. XXIV, p. 294), Lockwood stated that he had known of a tusk and some other bones of a mastodon which had been uncovered by sea-waves in a storm about 15 miles south of Long Branch. In another place (Pop. Sci. Monthly, vol. XXII, p. 344) he spoke of a tusk which had been thus unearthed in Monmouth County. The place was evidently north of Manasquan Inlet.

Salisbury and Knapp (Geol. Surv. New Jersey, vol. VIII) describe the region along the coast from Manasquan River to Long Branch as presenting Cape May deposits at elevations below 40 or 45 feet, while modern beach deposits occupy some areas below this level. It seems, however that some of these supposed Recent materials contain extinct vertebrates and are older than they appear to be.

13. Verona, Essex County.—George H. Cook (Geol. New Jersey, 1868, p. 741) stated that a very perfect tooth of a mastodon had been picked up near Verona. This town is on Peckman Brook, and in the valley of this stream there is some stratified drift which is referred to the Wisconsin. Too little is known about the history of the tooth to enable one to determine with confidence its geological age.

6714. Rockport, Warren County (Schooley’s Mountain).—In 1828 (Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. XIV, p. 188), Thomas P. Stewart reported the discovery of what he called a mammoth on Schooley’s Mountain. It was met with in 1827, in excavating the Morris Canal. The locality must therefore be west of Musconetcong River and probably not far from Rockport. The bones lay at a depth of about 3 feet. The animal was evidently a mastodon. A tooth, a lower last molar, measured 3.5 inches in width and 7 inches in length. The enamel was well preserved. Other bones were found.

15. Hackettstown, Warren County.—In the fourth volume of the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 1844, on pages 118 to 121, there is an account, by J. B. Maxwell, of the discovery of the remains of 5 mastodons near Hackettstown, about halfway on the road to Vienna. In this vicinity is a ridge of gneiss which runs in a northeast-and-southwest direction. On this ridge is a pond-like depression about 40 yards in length by 25 yards in width, which at one time was a marsh. After it was drained the owner began digging in it and discovered the mastodon skeletons. They are described as consisting of one animal pretty large, three of smaller size, and one a calf. From these were obtained a skeleton which became the property of Harvard University and has since been known as the Cambridge skeleton. It is described by Warren in both editions of his “Monograph on the Mastodon.” Jackson (Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. II, p. 60) described these skeletons. A lower jaw of a young individual had two alveoli for lower tusks, 0.75 inch in diameter.

Asa Gray (Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. II, 1848, p. 92) examined wood which had been taken in the place occupied by the stomach of the skeleton referred to. He found no differences between it and that of the common hemlock spruce. While Gray speaks of this mastodon as being found on Schooley’s Mountain, he evidently meant the ones found at Hackettstown.

According to Maxwell’s account there was at the surface 6 inches of vegetable deposit; below this was found about 6 inches of whitish sand; while below this came a bed of pure muck from 4 to 6 feet in depth. In this were buried the mastodon bones.

Lyell (Second Visit to U. S., ed. 3, vol. II, p. 363) mentions the skeletons found at Hackettstown. Between the ribs had been found about 7 bushels of vegetable matter supposed to have been contained in the stomach. He took some of it to London and had it examined microscopically. It appeared to belong to the white cedar, Thuja occidentalis.

By consulting Lewis and Kümmel’s geological map of New Jersey, it will be seen that the locality where these mastodons were found is on the Wisconsin moraine. Plates XLV and XLV a of Salisbury’s report (vol. V, Geol. Surv. New Jersey) present the topographical and geological details of this region. A “mastodon pond” is there mapped which is doubtless the one referred to above. We may be quite certain, therefore, that these mastodons lived after the retirement of the Wisconsin ice-sheet.

A note, apparently by George Cook (Geol. New Jersey, 1868, p. 741), stated that some years previously a mastodon tooth had been found 0.5 mile east of Vienna, 4 miles west of Hackettstown.

6816. Hope, Warren County.—A note, probably by George H. Cook, in his “Geology of New Jersey,” 1868, page 741, stated that a part of a mastodon skeleton had been found about 2 miles from Hope, on the road leading to Johnsonsburg and on the farm of Charles Howell. This would be northeast from Hope. On the New Jersey map referred to there is some Wisconsin drift indicated near this place. The remains are probably of late Wisconsin age.

17. Greendell, Sussex County.—In Warren’s “Monograph on the Mastodon” (first edition, page 174; second edition, page 200) is an extract taken from the Sussex Register, of September 27, 1851, giving an account of the finding of bones, jaws, and teeth of a mastodon on the farm of Timothy H. Cook, near Greenville. This town was later called Cuttoff and this name has recently been changed to Greendell. In Cook’s “Geology of New Jersey,” 1868, page 741, the farm was said to belong to Jacob Voss. In a bog which had been drained a fire was made on a stump of a tree. The fire burned the roots, and the bones of the animal became exposed. The bones of the head especially were apparently very near the surface. The town is on the Lackawanna Railroad, about 3 miles northeast of Johnsonsburg, Warren County.

PENNSYLVANIA.

(Map 5.)

1. Tunkhannock, Wyoming County.—In 1883 (2d Geol. Surv. Pennsylvania, G⁷, p. 20), Dr. I. C. White reported that the tusks and the teeth of a mastodon had been found at Tunkhannock. At the mouth of Tunkhannock Creek a large gravel deposit rises to a height of 125 feet above Susquehanna River and then spreads out into a wide plain. In the valley of the creek mentioned it takes the form of a sharp, low kame-like ridge of gravel and boulders. In such deposits the mastodon remains were found. According to White, these gravels and boulders were laid down in the waters which came from the retreating glacier and which deeply flooded all the streams. In case this explanation is the correct one, this mastodon lived there after the beginning of the retreat of the Wisconsin ice-sheet. Possibly, however, those gravels, at a height of 125 feet, belong to an older glacial stage.

White, on page 123 of his report quoted above, referred to a tusk which had been dug up in one of the streets of Tunkhannock. This was probably the one mentioned in connection with the teeth.

2. Pittston, Luzerne County.—Dr. Joseph Leidy, in 1873 (Ext. Vert. Fauna West. Terrs., p. 238, plate XXVIII, fig. 9), reported that there was in the Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia 3 first premolars of apparently as many individuals of Mammut americanum, which had been found at Pittston, associated with Equus major (E. complicatus) and Symbos sp. indet. (“Bison latifrons” of Leidy). One of these he figured. The present writer has examined these teeth. Two are upper antepenultimate milk molars (pm²), right and left; another is an upper penultimate milk molar, whose length is 45 mm. and whose width is nearly as much. They probably did not all belong to one individual. The geological age of these mastodons will be discussed on page 308.

693. Berwick, Columbia County.—The U. S. National Museum has a cast of a mastodon tooth sent there in 1904 by Professor A. U. Lesher. The tooth was an upper right last molar and only slightly worn. There were 4 crests and a very strongly developed talon. No details were furnished regarding the conditions under which it was discovered.

4. Reading, Berks County.—The collection of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia contains a lower left hindermost tooth of a mastodon and some fragments of one or two other teeth, said to have been found on Schuylkill River at Reading. These remains appear not to have been accompanied by any details regarding the manner of their burial.

5. Port Kennedy, Montgomery County.—Many remains of the mastodon have been found in the famous cave, or fissure, discovered at this place. The first accounts of these fossils were published in 1871 (Cope, Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc., vol. XII, pp. 15, 95; Wheatley, Amer. Jour. Sci., ser. 3, vol. I, pp. 235–237, 384–385). Cope (Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., ser. 2, vol. XI, pp. 193–267) presented the results of a thorough exploitation of the cave. For the nature of the remains of mastodon found there the papers mentioned may be consulted. A list of the associated fossils and a discussion of the geological features of the case will be found in its proper place on page 312.

6. Jackson Township, York County.—In the collection of the Academy at Philadelphia there is a lower left hindermost molar of a mastodon which is labeled as having been found in the township mentioned, but no details regarding the exact locality and kind of deposit were furnished. Jackson Township is situated in the west and northwestern part of York County.

7. Kishacoquillas Station, near Reedsville, Mifflin County.—In 1858 Professor H. D. Rogers (Geol. Pennsylvania, vol. I, p. 480) wrote that 4 grinders of a mastodon and a part of the skull had been found 3 miles southwest of Brown’s Mills on Kishacoquillas Creek. The remains rested on rounded pebbles and were covered with a few feet of alluvium. Professor Mosheim Swartzell, of Washington, D. C., informs the present writer that Brown’s Mills is located at the station Reedsville, and that the tooth must have been found near the station.

8. Chambersburg, Franklin County.—In 1806, Dr. B. S. Barton (Phila. Med. and Phys. Jour., vol. II, p. 157) recorded that a large grinder of Elephas americanus of Cuvier had been found in a field a few miles from Chambersburg. The tooth was evidently that of a mastodon.

9. Frankstown, Blair County.—Dr. W. J. Holland, in 1908 (Ann. Carnegie Mus., vol IV, p. 233), reported remains of young mastodons from a cave at the place named. They were associated with many other species of mammals, a list of which will be presented on pages 321, 322.

10. Bedford, Bedford County.—According to Cuvier (Oss. Foss., 4th ed., 1834, vol. II, p. 274), Mitchill mentioned that remains of a mastodon had been found at or near this place. The present writer has not seen Mitchill’s statement.

11. Pittsburgh, Allegheny County.—In 1876, Professor J. J. Stevenson (2d Geol. Surv. Pennsylvania, K, p. 22), reported that numerous fragments of bones and teeth had been found in the river bank at the junction of 70Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers. They were said to have been presented to a Pittsburgh high school.

12. Hickory, Washington County.—In 1875, Professor J. J. Stevenson (2d Geol. Surv. Pennsylvania, K, p. 22) reported that a mastodon tooth had been found in Mount Pleasant Township, in the county named. It was said to have been discovered on the high divide between Raccoon and Chartiers Creeks. The tooth is preserved at Washington and Jefferson College, at Washington, in the county of the same name. Professor Edwin Linton has informed the writer that the tooth was found about 1 or 1.5 miles southeast of Hickory. This indicates that it was found along Westland Run, probably about halfway down to the village of Westland. The geological position and possible age will be discussed on page 323.

13. Erie, Erie County.—In the Erie Public Museum the writer has seen a part of a lower right hindermost molar of a mastodon which is labeled as having been found long ago on what was called Frontier farm, about 2 miles west of the Public Library, below Eighth street and toward the lake. The discovery is credited to W. F. Leutzer. The locality would apparently be on Chase Creek, at an elevation of about 600 feet above sea-level, unless it had possibly been buried along the creek in some pre-Wisconsin formation. In lack of the information that ought to have been preserved it may be impossible to arrive at any certain conclusion. Mr. Clyde C. Hill, civil engineer, North East, Erie County, has informed the writer that Chase Creek flows through the old Frontier farm.

OHIO.

(Maps 5, 7.)

In Unglaciated Region.

1. Pike County.—In 1875 (Cincinnati Quart. Jour. Sci., vol. II, p. 154), J. H. Klippart wrote that the upper jaw of a mastodon, with a considerable part of the cranium, had been found somewhere in this county and had been on exhibition in the State Agricultural rooms. It was owned by a Mr. Faust, of Galion or Crestline. Nothing more appears to be known about this specimen.

2. Nashport, Muskingum County.—In 1837 (Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. XXXI, p. 79), S. P. Hildreth, in an unsigned article, stated that mastodon remains had been found 2 miles north of this place, during the excavation of a canal. He recognized large portions of tusks and some molar teeth. At the same place were found the skull which became the type of Castoroides ohioensis, as well as a skull which Hildreth described and named Ovis mamillaris, but which probably belonged to a domestic sheep.

47. Lisbon, Columbiana County.—In the Ohio University Department of Archæology and History there are some remains of a peccary which, as reported by Professor W. C. Mills, was found associated with remains of a mastodon. The locality is said to be in the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter of section 24, township 18 north, range 3 west. This would be in the south edge of the town of Lisbon and probably on the south side of the Middle Fork of Little Beaver River. It would be just outside of the moraine of the Wisconsin drift-sheet.

71

In Illinoian Drift Area.

3. Cincinnati, Hamilton County.—In the first edition of his “Ossemens Fossiles,” in 1812 (vol. II, Mastodons, p. 12), Cuvier mentioned the discovery of a tooth of a mastodon on the right bank of Ohio River, between the two Miamis. In 1843 (Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 1, vol. XII, p. 127), Lyell reported that teeth of the mastodon and of an elephant had been found 4 miles north of Cincinnati, in gravel beds of the higher terrace.

In his “Travels in North America,” volume II, page 60, Lyell wrote that several teeth of mastodons had been discovered on Mill Creek, and on what he indicated as the upper terrace. He presented a list of the genera of mollusks that had been found at the same place. He added that mastodon remains had been found in the strata of the upper terrace, both above and below Cincinnati. Professor Fenneman writes that in Mill Creek valley the Illinoian is distinctly terrace-like and composed of interbedded sheets of outwash and till, as though made during repeated advances of the ice. The teeth mentioned may belong, therefore, to the Illinoian or Sangamon.

The most important discovery of mastodon remains is that recorded by Seth Hayes (Jour. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. XVII, 1895, p. 217) and by E. W. Claypole (Amer. Geol., vol. XV, 1895, p. 325). These remains form what is known as the “Shaw mastodon.” They were discovered in Hyde Park, in the northeastern part of Cincinnati, in section 27 of Columbia Township. The spot is 1.4 miles away from the river, and just south of the upper part of Crawfish Creek. Remains of at least three mastodons were exhumed, including 3 tusks, a lower jaw with teeth, and many other bones. There were found also a tooth and a vertebra of a horse. An interesting matter regarding the lower jaw is the presence of 2 mandibular tusks of considerable size (Hayes, as cited, plates XI, XII). The diameter of each is given as 1.5 inches. One projected beyond the jaw 9.75 inches; the other, 7.4 inches. They were curved rather strongly downward. The specimen is to be referred to Mammut progenium Hay. The geology of the locality will be described on page 328.

Under this number may be recorded the discovery of mastodon teeth in a well sunk at Mount Washington, about 8 miles east of the central part of Cincinnati (Fuller and Clapp, Water-Supply Paper 259, 1912, p. 27). The teeth were found in coarse gravel, which lies only 15 feet from the surface, and is overlain by old till and loess. The indications are that the age of the mastodon is early Pleistocene.

In Area of Wisconsin Drift.

4. Amanda, Butler County.—In the collection of the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences the writer has seen 2 teeth of a mastodon, probably of the same individual, which are labeled as having been found on Dick’s Creek, Butler County. This creek is in Lemon Township, and flowing westward, empties into the Miami near Amanda. The teeth are credited to W. S. Vaux. No details regarding the circumstances of discovery are recorded. The locality is south of the Germantown moraine.

5. Germantown, Montgomery County.—In 1875 (Cin. Quart. Jour. Sci., vol. II, p. 154), Mr. J. H. Klippart reported that some years before that time 72an account had been published in the Dayton Journal of the finding of teeth, tusks, and some other parts of the skeleton of a mastodon near Germantown. It is not known whether any competent person identified these remains, nor what has become of them.

In 1870 (Amer. Jour. Sci., ser. 2, vol. L, pp. 54–57), Edward Orton described a geological section which was exposed along Twin Creek, a mile east of Germantown. Here were found precipitous walls of clay and gravel from 50 to 100 feet in thickness and extending 0.25 mile in each direction from a point. Beneath this was a bed of peat along 40 rods of the east bank of the creek, varying from 12 to 20 feet in thickness. In the peat-bed were found mosses, grasses, sedges, and wood and berries of red cedar. Orton reported that in 1870 there were taken from this bed two mastodon tusks each 8 feet in length; also a tooth which afterwards was shown to belong to Castoroides. Whether or not these tusks were those mentioned by Klippart is uncertain.

This section is discussed by Leverett (Monogr. U. S. Geol. Surv., XLI, p. 363, plate XIV) and by G. F. Wright (“Ice age in North America,” 5th ed., p. 592, fig. 151). The latter regards the peat-bed as having come into existence during a temporary recession of the Wisconsin ice and as having been covered up during another advance of it. Leverett thinks that there is good reason to believe that the peat-bed indicates a considerable interval of deglaciation, but that it remains to be determined whether this preceded the formation of the early Wisconsin moraine or succeeded it. Considering the great thickness of the overlying Wisconsin drift and the almost certainty that Illinoian drift underlies the Wisconsin, it seems probable that this peat-bed belongs to an interglacial deposit, probably the Sangamon.

6. Dayton, Montgomery County.—In 1820 (Amer. Jour. Sci., ser. I, vol. II, p. 245), Caleb Atwater wrote that teeth of the mastodon had been found at Dayton. No details were given and the case is not illuminating. The weights given for some of the teeth make it doubtful whether or not he distinguished mastodon teeth from those of elephants.

About the first of April 1921, Mr. C. E. Pickering, of Lake View, Ohio, sent to the Smithsonian Institution for identification a well-preserved upper right second molar of a mastodon. This had been found 4 miles east of Dayton in an excavation, 30 feet below the surface. The tooth is 130 mm. long and 95 mm. wide. The surfaces of the cones are furnished with welt-like ridges which descend from the summit to the bases.

This whole region is occupied by Wisconsin drift. It is probable that the tooth was found in some river deposit, not in the drift itself.

7. New Paris, Preble County.—Professor Joseph Moore (Proc. Ind. Acad. Sci. for 1886, p. 277) reported that many bones of a mastodon had been discovered by a farmer living 2 or 3 miles from New Paris. Two grinding teeth and one tusk nearly 11 feet long were part of the remains. The bones became the property of Earlham College. Nothing was said regarding the circumstances of the discovery, but the bones were probably found in one of the marshes so common in that region. New Paris itself appears to be situated on the Germantown moraine.

738. West Sonora, Preble County.—In 1893 (Amer. Geologist, vol. XII, p. 73) Professor Joseph Moore reported that mastodon remains had been found near Sonora, Preble County, in company with a fragment of a tooth of Castoroides. He probably meant West Sonora, as there is, at present at least, no town by the name of Sonora in the county. He furnished no details as to topography or geology. West Sonora is on the Englewood glacial moraine.

9. New Madison, Darke County.—The museum connected with the public library in Greenville, Darke County, contains a large lower jaw of a mastodon with the second and third molars, right and left, found near the headwaters of Mud Creek, on the farm of Elias Harter. The place was evidently near the village of New Madison. The township is number 10 north, range 1 east, and is named Harrison. In the same collection is a part, about 4 feet long, of a tusk found on the farm of Daniel Ruh, about 2 miles north of New Madison. It was met with at a depth of 3 feet in digging a ditch. For the geology of the region see page 326. New Madison is on the Englewood moraine.