Chapter XVII: On the Theory of the Pleistocene Terraces of the Coastal Plain (9)
At Galva, 10 miles southwest of Kewanee, in cuttings along the railroad, is found a section which illustrates the geological situation at Kewanee (Monogr. XXXVIII, U. S. Geol. Surv., p. 126, plate X). There is at the top 4 feet of loess, 1 foot of Sangamon soil, 4 feet of Illinoian drift; in another section nearby there are 12 feet of loess, 2 feet of Sangamon soil, and 40 feet of Illinoian drift.
Another section at Galva is described by Leverett (op. cit., p. 130). The loess is 15 feet thick, beneath which is a mucky soil about 1 foot in depth, which caps the Illinoian till sheet. In this soil a log about a foot in diameter and several feet long was found embedded. Alden and Leighton (Iowa Geol. Surv., vol. XXVI, p. 170) mention this occurrence.
From these examples it becomes evident that the “chip bed” at Kewanee is a Sangamon soil overlain by loess. The elephant tooth at a depth of 12 feet must have been buried in the blue clay. This, however, is probably the unweathered part of the loess. If so, the mammoth tooth found at Kewanee is to be referred to the early Peorian stage.
4. _Penny’s Slough, Henry County._—In the collection of the Davenport Academy of Science is a large upper left hindermost molar tooth, labeled as having been found in Penny’s Slough. It is very large, the length along the base being 357 mm. (about 14 inches), and the height of the eighteenth plate is 175 mm. There is an unusual number of the plates, apparently 27. There are 7 plates in a line 100 mm. long. The tooth is moderately worn. There are 2 large roots in front and 2 rows of smaller ones behind these. The base is straight and the plates little warped.
Mr. C. C. Martin, of Geneseo, Illinois, county surveyor of Henry County, has informed the writer that Penny’s Slough is located in sections 17, 18, 19, and 20 of township 18 north, range 3 east, in the northern part of the county and on Rock River. On Leverett’s glacial map of this region (Monogr. U. S. Geol. Surv., XXXVIII, plate VI) the area is indicated as being occupied by sand and gravel plains and terraces of Wisconsin age. It seems most probable that this elephant lived when the Wisconsin glacier was not far away. However, there is a variety of Pleistocene formations in that region and the elephant in question may belong to the Iowan or to the Illinoian glacial stage.
5. _Kendall County._—In the collection of the National Museum is a plaster cast made from a tooth of _Elephas primigenius_, found somewhere in Kendall County, but the present location of the original tooth is not known. It had a length of 280 mm. along the base. There appears to have been 20 plates, 8 in a 100–mm. line. The tooth seems to have resembled greatly one of _E. primigenius_ which was brought from Alaska.
Kendall County is mostly occupied by moraines formed during the Wisconsin stage of the Pleistocene, especially moraines which were built up just before the retirement of the ice into the basin of Lake Michigan. Probably the elephant which possessed the tooth lived during the latter part of the Wisconsin stage.
WISCONSIN.
(Map 11.)
1. _Milwaukee._—In the Public Museum of Milwaukee are considerable parts of a mammoth skeleton (No. 5351) found within the limits of the city. These were secured in May 1898, in excavating for a sewer along Cold Spring avenue and between Twenty-ninth and Thirtieth streets. On learning of the discovery, Mr. George B. Turner, then taxidermist of the Milwaukee Public Museum, afterwards chief taxidermist in the U. S. National Museum, took charge of the excavations for the skeleton. He furnished the writer with an account of his work, giving a list of the bones, a plan of the area excavated, and a section of the deposits passed through. A description of the remains is given below:
_Feet._ _Inches._ Filled-in materials 4 0 Clay and peat, mixed 1 0 Peat 1 3 Peat and clay, mixed 1 0 Peat, clay, and shells 1 0 Clear blue clay with the elephant bones at the bottom 4 6 Gravel and cobblestones undetermined.
As indicated in Turner’s sketch, the surface of the gravel and stones sloped downward toward the north.
It will be seen that the bones were buried about 9 or 10 feet below the natural surface of the ground. The head of the elephant was directed toward the east, the hinder end toward the west. The parts found were within a distance of 10 feet from east to west. Later the excavations on each side of the sewer were extended eastward, as shown on the plan, in an effort to find the skull, but without success, and iron rods 10 feet long, in two sections, were driven their full length horizontally everywhere around the excavation in the hope of recovering the skull.
For some time after the finding of these bones the theory prevailed that they had belonged to an elephant of one of the circuses which had made use of the ground near there. The fact that the lower jaw was found, but not the upper jaw and the brain-case, and only a part of the vertebræ and a part of the foot-bones, is sufficient to dispose of this theory. Also, some of the bones lack the epiphyses. Besides this, the elephant was neither the African nor the Asiatic species. It is evident that the animal after dying had lain on the surface for some time, so that the bones were somewhat scattered, perhaps by wolves or waves, and some were injured by exposure to the weather.
The following is a list of the bones found: Lower jaw, 5 cervicals, 9 presacrals, 31 ribs, both scapulæ, both humeri, both ulnæ, both radii, 9 wristbones, 14 metacarpals and phalanges, 1 femur and a fragment of the other, 2 tibiæ, 2 fibulæ, 17 metatarsals and phalanges.
It is evident that this elephant lived and died after the Lake Michigan ice-lobe had withdrawn from that vicinity. It may, however, not have been long after that withdrawal; for it is probable that the muddy waters from the foot of that glacial lobe furnished the blue clay which enveloped the bones. Later peat and muck and mixtures of these with clay accumulated over the blue clay. The place is within the area of what Alden has mapped as ground moraine of Lake Michigan glacier. The occurrence of peat and shells seems to show that there was a pond in which the elephant had been buried and afterwards covered with clay and peat.
Under this number must be included the fine palate and teeth found in excavating for a sewer on the South Side, at Milwaukee. The record as to exact location, depth, and kind of materials overlying it is missing. A description of it, with illustrations, was published by the present writer in 1912 (Iowa Geol. Surv., vol. XXIII, p. 409, plate LIX).
This individual probably had a history not greatly different from that of the Cold Spring Avenue elephant.
MARYLAND.
(Map 11.)
1. _Oxford Neck, Talbot County._—In 1869, Cope (Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc., vol. XI, p. 178) stated he had seen in the collection of the Baltimore Academy of Natural Sciences two molars, the tusk, maxillary and premaxillary bones, and parts of frontals, with fragments of other bones, which he referred to _Elephas americanus_ Leidy. These, it is supposed, were remains of _E. primigenius_. Lucas (Maryland Geol. Surv., Pliocene and Pleistocene, 1906, p. 164) refers to these remains and identifies them as certainly those of _E. primigenius_. He found a smaller tooth of this species which had come from Oxford Neck. Leidy (Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., vol. VII, 1869, p. 255) speaks of the teeth, tusks, and the other parts mentioned above.
VIRGINIA.
(Map 11.)
1. _Saltville, Smyth County._—In 1914, Mr. H. D. Mount, of the Mathieson Alkali Works, of Saltville, sent to the U. S. National Museum some remains of an elephant, identified as _Elephas primigenius_. These were found about 1896 in making an excavation for the water reservoir. The most important parts sent are teeth, whole or fragmentary, and appear to represent three or four individuals. Among the teeth is a complete but considerably worn upper left hindermost molar and an unworn upper second true molar. The former indicates the presence of 23 ridge-plates; the latter 16 of them. Remarks on this discovery and a list of all the species secured will be found on page 352.
NORTH CAROLINA.
(Maps 11, 39.)
1. _Inland Waterway Canal, Carteret County._—In the collection of the State Museum, at Raleigh, the writer has seen an upper hindermost molar (A. N. 1326) which certainly belongs to this species and which is said to have been dredged up in Core Creek. The creek forms a part of the Inland Waterway which joins Neuse River with the harbor at Beaufort. The molar was presented to the State collection by Mr. H. T. Paterson, U. S. assistant engineer, now of Newbern, North Carolina. From the director of the museum, Professor H. H. Brimley, the writer has received photographs of this fine tooth. In the same canal was found a jaw of a mastodon which is mentioned on page 117. From Mr. Paterson the writer has received the important information that the tooth was found in Core Creek about 8.5 miles from Beaufort, in 1909, while dredging a sedimentary deposit varying from 6 to 8 feet in depth, containing numerous cypress stumps and roots and underlain by a deposit of sand mixed with shells and other fossils. Into this the dredge went from 6 to 8 feet.
The tooth is worn to the base in front and a very few plates are probably missing. Nevertheless, there are still 22 or 23 remaining. The base of the tooth is nearly straight and the ridge-plates are but little curved. The length of the base is 232 mm. Measured along the side of the tooth are 11 ridge-plates in a 100–mm. line. The enamel is unusually thin, being about 1.3 mm. in thickness, and but little undulating across the grinding-surface.
It is believed that the deposit containing this elephant tooth and the cypress stumps belongs to the first interglacial, while the underlying sands containing marine fossils belong to the Nebraskan glacial stage.
FLORIDA.
(Map 11.)
1. _Palma Sola, Manatee County._—Mr. Charles T. Earle, an enthusiastic collector living at this place, sent to the U. S. National Museum in 1921 various lots of vertebrate fossils which had been washed up on the beach at Palma Sola. Among the fossils belonging to the Pleistocene is a tooth, a right lower second milk molar, which must apparently be referred to _Elephas primigenius_. It is much worn, the plates present rising above the base only about 10 mm. The anterior root and the posterior had been considerably absorbed. Only 4 ridge-plates remain; evidently at least 1 had wholly disappeared from the front, and 2, possibly 3, from the rear. The original length of the tooth can not be determined. The width is 30 mm. The 4 enamel plates present, together with the portion of cement belonging to each, occupy a length of 30 mm. The enamel is thin.
It would be more surprising to find this species in Florida had it not already been discovered in North Carolina and at two places in Texas, Temple and near San Antonio. One can not state with certainty the stage of the Pleistocene during which this individual lived, but the writer believes that it was during an early stage, perhaps the first interglacial.
TENNESSEE.
(Map 11. Figure 23.)
1. _Whitesburg, Hamblen County._—In a collection of fossil vertebrates sent many years ago to the U. S. National Museum and described by the writer in 1920 (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. LVIII, p. 85) is a fragment consisting of two plates from the rear of a penultimate milk molar, probably of the lower jaw. This is referred to _Elephas primigenius_. Of page 395 will be found a list of the accompanying species.
KENTUCKY.
(Map 11.)
1. _Bigbone Lick, Boone County._—In the Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia is a fine upper left hindermost molar, sent from the place named. There are present 23 or 24 plates. It is worn back to the apex of the eighteenth plate. The length along the base in a straight line is 253 mm.; there are therefore about 9 plates in a 100–mm. line. Some other teeth from the same place, now in the collection, were regarded as belonging to the same species.
In William Cooper’s account of collections made at Bigbone Lick (Monthly Amer. Jour. Geol., vol. I, pp. 168–171) he showed that great numbers of teeth as well as bones of elephants had been collected at various times at this locality. He refers all to _Elephas primigenius_, but certainly many of them must have belonged to the species now known as _E. columbi_. Cooper mentions the discovery of a fine and nearly entire skull of an elephant, 4 feet long, having all of the teeth and one tusk in it. In the nearly 100 years that have elapsed this specimen has probably suffered destruction.
FINDS OF ELEPHAS COLUMBI IN EASTERN NORTH AMERICA.
ONTARIO.
(Map 12.)
1. _St. Catharines, Lincoln County._—In 1898 (Ottawa Naturalist, vol. XII, p. 137), Mr. L. M. Lambe stated that there was in the collection of the Geological Survey of Canada from this place a molar of a mammoth, purchased in 1887 by Mr. Whiteaves. It had been found while excavating under the opera house for a sewer, on Queen Street. In the collection of the Buffalo Society of Natural History the writer has seen a cast of a lower right hindermost molar, the original of which is said to have been found at St. Catharines. It was probably made from the tooth now in the collection at Ottawa. There are 22 plates; probably one or two may be missing from the front, and the wear extends over only 6 plates. Of these there are 7 in a 100–mm. line. The plates of the hinder half are considerably curved, and the hindermost ones lean strongly forward. The writer regards the tooth as that of _Elephas columbi_.
As shown by Fairchild’s plate 17 (Bull. 160, New York Geol. Surv.) and Coleman’s plate 22 (Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., XV, p. 347) this town is situated within the Iroquois beach. The elephant could, therefore, hardly have lived at or before the time of the formation of the beach; in reality it probably lived long after the lake had retired to its present limits.
In his “Catalogue of Casts of Fossils,” 1866, page 37, Henry A. Ward gave a figure of a cast of an elephant tooth, No. 143, the original of which was said to have been found at St. Catharines. This tooth may be the one now at Ottawa, but if so the figure is incorrect.
2. _Hamilton, Wentworth County._—In 1863 (Canad. Nat. and Geol., vol. VII, p. 135), a lower jaw of an elephant was described under the name _Euelephas jacksoni_ Briggs and Foster. This had been found near Hamilton, at the extreme western end of Lake Ontario. It was mentioned and figured as _Euelephas jacksoni_ in the same year by W. E. Logan (Rep. Geol. Surv. Canada, p. 914, figs. 495, 497). The specific name, however, is not to be credited to Briggs and Foster, for it was proposed by W. W. Mather in 1838 (Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. XXXIV, p. 362, figures) for a lower jaw of an elephant found in Jackson County, Ohio. This jaw is, however, from the description and the figure, wholly indeterminable. Lambe (Ottawa Naturalist, vol. XII, p. 136) presents a short history of the specimen found at Hamilton. It was reported first by T. Cottle in 1852 (Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 2, vol. X, p. 395; reprint in Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. XV, 1853, p. 282). Besides the jaw, lacking most of the left ramus, there was found a much-curved tusk nearly 7 feet long.
The writer has had the opportunity to examine this jaw, now in the Victoria Museum at Ottawa. It is believed to belong to _Elephas columbi_. The finely preserved last molar has been worn on about 9 of the ridge-plates, and this worn surface is about 110 mm. long. There are 24 plates present, and 8 of these occupy a 100–mm. line. The hinder plates lean forward and the base of the tooth is very convex.
Cottle reported that the remains were discovered at a depth of 40 feet from the surface and at an elevation of 60 feet above the level of the lake. It is stated on the label that the elevation above the lake was 70 feet, and this is the height given by Logan (Geol. Canada, 1863, p. 914). The author stated also that at an elevation of 7 feet more were found antlers of _Cervus canadensis_ and the jaw of a beaver.
VERMONT.
(Map 12.)
1. _Mount Holly, Rutland County._—In 1849 (Proc. Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sci., vol. II, p. 100), Professor Louis Agassiz exhibited before the members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science a tooth and a tusk of an elephant, discovered in making excavations for the Rutland and Burlington Railroad, somewhere on the slope of Mount Holly, Rutland County. It was said to have been found lying under an erratic boulder. Agassiz was doubtful as to the specific identity of the animal. In 1850 (Amer. Jour. Sci., ser. 2, vol. IX, p. 256), Zadock Thompson gave a brief account of this discovery. The remains were found, he said, in Mount Holly Township, at an elevation of 1,360 feet above sea-level, in a deposit of muck, at a depth of about 9 feet. This muck-bed is located on the divide between the streams which flow into Connecticut River and those which empty into Lake Champlain. In 1853 (“History of Vermont,” App., p. 14) Thompson presented a more extended report on the discovery. This is reprinted in Edward Hitchcock’s “Report on the Geology of Vermont,” 1861, page 176. The elevation is given here as 1,415 feet; the location is said to be east of the summit station. On the Wallingford topographic sheet of the U. S. Geological Survey the station named Summit is shown to have an elevation of 1,500 feet. First, there was found a tooth lying on gravel beneath 11 feet of peat; soon afterward a tusk was discovered at a distance of 80 feet, and later the other tusk and some bones were met with not far away. The grinder was in an excellent state of preservation. The length of one tusk along the convexity of the curve is given as 80 inches, while the distance direct from the base to the tip was 60 inches. A figure of the tusk was given by Hager in the second volume of the 1861 report just referred to, on page 934. According to Agassiz’s statement, the tooth and tusk were taken to the Lawrence Scientific School, Cambridge.
Dr. J. C. Warren (“Monogr. on _Mastodon giganteus_,” ed. 2, 1855, p. 162, plate XXVIII, fig. B) figured and described the tooth. The length was given as 11 inches at the base, and the number of ridge-plates as 22. This would give an average of 8 plates in a 100–mm. line. This number and the general appearance of the tooth indicate that the animal was _Elephas columbi_, instead of _E. primigenius_. The difference between this tooth and that of _E. primigenius_ is well shown by the figure of a tooth of _E. primigenius_ from Zanesville, Ohio, figured on the same plate with the Vermont tooth. This tooth is now in the American Museum at New York.
Thompson reported the presence of many billets of wood, about 18 inches long, in the bottom of the muck, the work of beavers.
At the Davenport (Iowa) Academy of Natural Science the writer examined a tooth of an elephant labeled as having been found on Mount Holly in excavating for the Vermont Central Railroad. The length along the base is 300 mm., the height of the ninth plate is 160 mm., the length of the grinding-surface 160 mm. There are in all 24 plates, the 10 anterior ones of which are worn. There are 7 ridge-plates in a 100–mm. line, measured on one side of the tooth. This tooth is regarded as belonging to _Elephas columbi_; it certainly belonged to another individual than the one that Warren figured. It is almost certain that the animals represented by the teeth and skeletal remains found on Mount Holly lived after the retreat of the ice from those mountains; and one may suppose that local glaciers lingered long after the main ice-front had abandoned the region. The animals lived certainly as late as near the close of the Pleistocene, if not at the beginning of the Recent; they may have been living on those mountains while the basin of Lake Champlain was an arm of the sea.
NEW YORK.
(Map 12.)
1. _Homer, Cortland County._—In 1847 (Amer. Jour. Agric. and Sci., vol. VI, p. 31, fig.), Samuel Woolworth reported that an elephant tooth had been found on the bank of a small stream, about 2 miles northwest of Homer. Emmons, in 1858 (Geol. Surv. North Carolina, East. Cos., p. 200), figured the same tooth. In his Manual of Geology (ed. 2, 1860, p. 242, fig. 207) he stated that this tooth was found in Cortland County. Henry A. Ward, of Rochester, advertised and sold casts of this elephant tooth, as the writer is informed by Mr. Frank H. Ward, of Ward’s Natural Science Establishment. It is almost certain that this elephant lived in the neighborhood of Homer after the Wisconsin glacial ice had begun its retreat to the far north.
2. _Elmira, Chemung County._—In the collection of the American Museum of Natural History in New York is a part of an elephant tooth (Cat. No. 10488) which the writer identifies as belonging to _Elephas columbi_, and which is recorded as having been found at Elmira. There are only 3 ridge-plates in the fragment. As to the time during the Pleistocene when this species lived in New York, all that can be said is that it was during the last half of the Wisconsin stage. No specimens have been found as close to the glacial lakes preceding Lake Ontario as in the cases of _Elephas primigenius_, but this may be due to accidents of preservation or to failures of discovery.
NEW JERSEY.
(Map 12.)
1. _Middletown, Monmouth County._—In 1818 (Cuvier’s “Theory of the Earth,” p. 384, plate I, figs. 2, 5), S. L. Mitchill referred to a tooth of an elephant found somewhere about Middletown. In his “Catalogue of Organic Remains,” 1826, page 10, Mitchill mentioned a singular boat-shaped tooth of an elephant, found on Bennett’s farm, Middletown, New Jersey. Both references are to the same tooth; the shape was due to the wear the tooth had suffered. It was said to come from the region where the horse remains were obtained. This tooth was a lower right hindermost molar, much worn. It evidently belonged to _Elephas columbi_. We have no other information about the specimen. It appears probable that the deposits which yielded remains of horses and of elephants are to be referred to an interglacial stage, at least as old as the Sangamon. The finding of a bone of _Megatherium_ along the New Jersey coast suggests that the Aftonian may be represented there.
PENNSYLVANIA.
(Map 12.)
1. _Rogersville, Greene County._—The writer has received from Mr. Andrew Waychoff, of Waynesburg, a small photograph of a lower hindermost molar, found 3 miles south of Rogersville, in the bed of Hargus Creek. The tooth was found about 1909 or 1910 and passed into the possession of Mr. Waychoff; but it had been broken by the finder, who wished to see what was in it. The tooth has 8 ridge-plates in a 100–mm. line and the form and arrangement of the plates indicate that it belonged to _Elephas columbi_. It is impossible to determine, with the knowledge at command, the stage of the Pleistocene to which this animal is to be assigned.
2. _Pittsburgh, Allegheny County._—In 1910 (Science, n. s., vol. XXXI, p. 31), an anonymous note stated that there was in Carnegie Museum of Natural History an enormous tusk, supposed to be of this species, found in the banks of the Allegheny River, in a suburb of Pittsburgh. There is, however, no certainty that the tusk was not that of _E. primigenius_ or of _Mammut americanum_. In either case it would be difficult to refer the animal to any definite Pleistocene stage.
3. _Tryonville, Crawford County._—In 1892, Mr. H. Roberts sent to the Smithsonian Institution considerable parts of a skeleton of _Elephas columbi_, including the hinder part of a lower molar, probably the penultimate. These remains had been found in digging a cellar in Tryonville, at a depth of 7 feet. Tryonville is on Oil Creek and in the eastern part of the county. From Mrs. A. A. O’Dell, Niagara Falls, New York, daughter of Mr. Roberts, the writer learns that the cellar was at a height of 80 feet above the level of Oil Creek. Since that time the creek has abandoned its channel at that point.
OHIO.
(Maps 12, 36.)
1. _Stark County._—In Princeton University is a large lower left hindermost molar catalogued as having been found in Stark County. The tooth has 24 ridge-plates and is worn back to the fourteenth from the front. The length from the front of the tooth to the base of the last plate is 315 mm. There is no exact record of the locality. The Grand River moraine of the Wisconsin ice covers most of this county, so that the animal probably lived after the ice had disappeared from that vicinity.
2. _Amboy, Ashtabula County._—In the collection of the Buffalo (New York) Natural History Society is a small elephant tooth, evidently a second milk molar, found at Amboy. It is regarded by the writer as belonging to _Elephas columbi_. There are present 7 ridge-plates and all have suffered wear. The length from front to rear is 114 mm.
In the Case School of Applied Science, Cleveland, is a large lower right hindermost molar of an elephant found at Amboy, in the extreme northeastern corner of the State. There is a description and figure of this tooth in the Scientific American for January 23, 1904, on page 60. It is there called _Elephas primigenius_. It presents 23 plates and front and rear talons; the length from the base in front to the rear of the hinder talon is 295 mm. There are from 6 to 8 plates in a 100–mm. line. The tooth was found between 1890 and 1900 in a gravel-pit near Amboy, worked by the Lake Shore Railroad. In the same pit was discovered a tusk which may have belonged to the same animal. A tooth of _Elephas primigenius_ at the Buffalo Society of Natural History was probably found at the same place. The writer is informed by Professor Frank R. Van Horn, of the Case School of Applied Science, that the deposit consists of interstratified sands and gravels and is supposed to be the delta formation of the old Conneaut River. Its thickness was from 50 to 75 feet. In this deposit was driftwood, arranged in such regular order that it suggested the idea that it had formed part of a corduroy road.
MICHIGAN.
(Map 12.)
1. _Jackson County._—In 1863 (Canad. Naturalist and Geologist, vol. VIII, p. 399), Alexander Winchell described an elephant tooth (No. 3163), found in this county. This is now in the collection at the University of Michigan, labeled _Elephas jacksoni_. The writer regards it as belonging to _E. columbi_. It is the much-worn hindermost tooth of the left side of the lower jaw. There are present 17 plates, and about 7 are missing from the front end. Above the bases of the rear plates are only 5 in a 100–mm. line; on the worn face are 7 plates in this distance. The anterior plates lean backward with respect to the base, while the hinder ones lean forward. The plates are more or less bent between base and apex. The Kalamazoo morainic system crosses the middle of Jackson County, running east and west.
In 1861 (1st Bien. Rep. Geol. Surv. Michigan, p. 132), Professor Winchell mentioned this tooth and stated that it had been found in the northern part of the county while a ditch was being made. The locality is, therefore, north of the moraine referred to above.
INDIANA.
(Map 12.)
1. _Terre Haute, Vigo County._—In the State Museum at Indianapolis is a fine lower left molar of _E. columbi_, labeled as found, in 1896, near Terre Haute, on the farm of Aaron Conover, and presented by Earl Conover. Mr. Herbert C. Anderson, county surveyor of Vigo County, informed the writer that the farm is located in the southwest quarter of section 9, township 12 north, range 9 west. This is 3.5 miles north of Terre Haute. The place is near Wabash River and the deposit is probably outwash from one of the ice-sheets. The depth at which the tooth was found is given as 18 feet. The length from the top of the anterior plate to the base of the hindermost is 380 mm.; width of worn face 100 mm. The hinder plates lean strongly toward the front and there are 6 plates in 100 mm.
2. _Monrovia, Morgan County._—The collection of the State Museum at Indianapolis contains the hinder half of what appears to be the lower right last molar. This was presented January 10, 1911, by David Hobson, of Monrovia, Indiana, and is labeled as found 1.5 miles southeast of Monrovia, in a gravel bar in Sycamore Creek. There are present 13 plates, considerably flexed as they rise from base to summit.
According to Leverett’s glacial map of Indiana, Monrovia is situated on the northern edge of the Shelbyville moraine. The tooth seems to have been found in Sycamore Creek, on the moraine or near its southern border, not far from the northern border of the Illinoian drift area. While the possessor of this tooth probably lived during some period of the Wisconsin stage, it is possible that the tooth had been washed out of some deposit of the Illinoian or of some interglacial deposit laid down between the Illinoian and the Wisconsin stages.
3. _Windfall, Tipton County._—In the Morrill collection, in the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, there are two teeth, an upper and a lower last molar, secured at Windfall by Professor Erwin H. Barbour. These teeth have been described and illustrated by the writer (36th Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv. Indiana, p. 742, plates XXV, XXVI). Windfall is situated on Wisconsin drift, some miles west of the more or less morainic belt which marks the northwestward continuation of the Union City moraine.
4. _Bringhurst, Carroll County._—In the State Museum at Indianapolis is a last molar found some years ago near Bringhurst and presented by Mr. John Flora. There are 27 plates present, an unusual number. The length of the tooth is 320 mm. from the summit of the first to the base of the twenty-sixth. No information was furnished as to the exact place where the tooth was found, nor as to the depth and kind of materials. Bringhurst is situated on Wisconsin drift, and the animal must have lived at some time after the ice retired from the Fowler-Lafayette moraine.
ILLINOIS.
(Maps 12, 38.)
1. _Staley, Champaign County._—In the collection at the University of Illinois the writer has seen a lower last molar recorded as having been found by John Early at a point 5.5 miles west and 1.5 miles south of Champaign, apparently not far from Staley. It is said to have been picked up by a dredge; hence probably in some ditching operations. The writer regarded the tooth as belonging to _Elephas columbi_.
Apparently this tooth was found very near the outer border of the Champaign moraine; hence the animal might have lived at any time after the deposition of this moraine. It is more probable, however, that this species did not affect such a cold environment, and haunted those regions when the climate had greatly ameliorated.
2. _Stronghurst, Henderson County._—In the summer of 1914, Mr. John Shick discovered near Stronghurst, in a well, at a depth of 20 feet, four elephant teeth. A letter, with photographs of these teeth, sent to the U. S. Geological Survey, was shown the writer, who identified the teeth as belonging to _Elephas columbi_, apparently the second and third upper deciduous molars, right and left. They were reported to have been found in a dark soil. All the region about Stronghurst is occupied by Illinoian drift. Since at a depth of 20 feet an old soil was reached it becomes quite certain that this represents a pre-Illinoian interglacial deposit, probably the Yarmouth stage; and to that must be assigned the time of the elephant in question.
3. _Chillicothe, Peoria County._—In the palæontological collection of the University of Iowa is a tooth of _Elephas columbi_, recorded as collected at Chillicothe by Fred Wachs. It was found in gravel, at a depth of 40 feet, but the exact locality is not known. The tooth is the first lower true molar.
It is impossible to determine the geological age of this tooth. Chillicothe is situated on Illinois River and within the area of the Wisconsin drift. The valley is filled with deposits brought down from the Wisconsin ice-sheet and by late alluvium; but at a depth of 40 feet there might possibly be some earlier gravels.
4. _Chicago Heights, Cook County._—From J. H. Knapp, Chicago Heights, the writer has received photographs of a lower hindermost molar of _Elephas columbi_, found in Second Creek, 2.5 miles east of Chicago Heights. This locality is situated on the Valparaiso moraine and we must refer the time of the existence of the elephant to the Late Wisconsin stage.
5. _Pawpaw, Lee County._—In the collection of the palæontological department of the University of Nebraska the writer saw a lower molar of _Elephas columbi_ (apparently the left second), found at Pawpaw. It was presented by Dr. M. H. Everett, of Lincoln, Nebraska. There are present 19 ridge-plates, and there are 7 plates in a 100–mm. line.
On inquiry by the writer Mr. Frank Wheeler, of Pawpaw, furnished detailed information. In constructing an ice-pond there was found at a depth of 4 feet parts of both hip-bones, a femur 4 feet 4 inches long, some much decayed foot-bones, some vertebræ and ribs, and the head and lower jaw. The head is said to have been nearly 3 feet long and the lower jaw 26 inches long. In the latter were two huge teeth. It appears that the forelegs were present, but much decayed. No tusks were found, nor any upper teeth. It was concluded that the animal was 22 feet 6 inches long and between 15 and 16 feet high; but the dimensions were undoubtedly exaggerated. Certain “streaks and mossy fibers” led to the conclusion that the animal had been covered with a coat of hair. It is probable that all of these remains except the tooth in Lincoln have been lost. Undoubtedly, had an expert in exhuming such skeletal remains been called in there might have been rescued a large part of the skeleton. Up to this time no good skeleton has been secured of _E. columbi_.
The place where the skeleton was found is in the southwest quarter of the southeast quarter of section 10, township 37 north, range 2 east. This is situated on a member of the Bloomington morainic system, a moraine left by the Wisconsin ice-sheet. It is evident, therefore, that the skeleton of the elephant had, during some Late Wisconsin time, fallen in a pond and become slowly covered up.
There is an account of this discovery in F. E. Stevens’s “History of Lee County, Illinois,” 1914, page 527.
6. _Woodhull, Henry County._—In the Galesburg, Illinois, Register of May 14, 1911, appeared an account of the finding of three large molars and some bones of a supposed mastodon in a clay of a brick and tile factory at Woodhull.
Professor Page L. Baker, superintendent of schools in Woodhull, states that first a part, 6 feet 10 inches long, of a tusk was found, 9 inches in circumference at the base, 6 inches at the other end. Some scattered bony plates supposed to belong to the skull were observed, but no limb-bones were found. Five teeth were secured, varying in weight from 6 to 16 pounds; one had 20 enamel plates, and there were 6 of these plates in a 100–mm. line. It can hardly be doubted that the species represented was _Elephas columbi_.
Professor Baker stated that the pit was about 14 feet deep, the upper 2 feet consisting of prairie soil, possibly loess. Below this is 10 feet of red clay, and then about 2 feet of white clay, resting on a layer of muck. The bones were in the white clay, but resting on the muck. The teeth were wholly in the white clay. The tusk was removed about 15 feet from the teeth. This region is covered by Illinois drift, overlain by loess, sometimes of considerable thickness. It does not appear from the depth and character of the deposits that the Illinoian drift had been penetrated. The muck-bed belongs probably to the Sangamon stage, possibly to the Iowan. The reader is referred to the geological sections found at Galva, about 18 miles further east (see p. 142).
MARYLAND.
(Map 12.)
1. _Oxford Neck, Talbot County._—In 1869 (Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc., vol. XI, p. 178), Cope wrote that there had been found on the farm of Lambert Kirby, in Oxford Neck, a molar tooth resembling that of a half-grown _Elephas primigenius_ or _E. columbi_. Besides this tooth were remains of what Cope called _Elephas americanus_ Leidy. These, it is supposed, belonged to _Elephas primigenius_. The collection referred to had been placed in the cabinet of the Baltimore Academy of Sciences; but the writer has not seen it. Lucas (Maryland Geol. Surv., Pliocene and Pleistocene, 1906, p. 167) describes the teeth from this locality. He identified one small tooth as belonging certainly to _E. columbi_, and a large one as probably belonging to the same species.
2. _Queen Anne County._—In 1820, Horace H. Hayden (Geolog. Essays, p. 121) wrote that he had an enormous grinder of the Asiatic elephant, dug up in the county named, on the plantation of Mr. Carmichael. It was said to have been enveloped in a stiff blue clay.
Dr. Samuel L. Mitchill (Cuvier’s “Theory of the Earth,” 1818, p. 394, plate I, figs. 3, 5) mentions and figures the tooth, apparently that of _Elephas columbi_. It is said to have been dug out of the ground by the side of a marsh. It was the last upper molar of probably the right side.
WEST VIRGINIA.
(Map 12.)
1. _Wirt County._—From Professor John L. Tilton, of the University of West Virginia, the writer has received for examination a fragment of a tooth of _Elephas columbi_ reported to have been found many years ago, somewhere in Wirt County along Little Kanawha River. No details have been preserved. The thick ridge-plates and the heavy crimped enamel betray the species.
NORTH CAROLINA.
(Maps 12, 39.)
1. _New Hanover County._—In the State Museum at Raleigh, the writer has seen a part of a molar tooth of this species consisting of 9 ridge-plates. It is said to have been found in the quarry of Ross and Larry. There are 8 ridge-plates in a 100–mm. line and the enamel is rather thick.
Captain E. D. Williams, of Wilmington, has informed the writer that this quarry is situated about 9 miles below Wilmington, near the Fort Fisher road. From a point a little below this Captain Williams secured a tooth of _Mammut americanum_.
SOUTH CAROLINA.
(Map 12.)
1. _Beaufort, Beaufort County._—In 1877, Dr. Leidy (Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., vol. VIII, p. 213) stated that there was in the exhibit of the Smithsonian Institution at the exposition at Philadelphia, in 1876, a last lower molar of this species, found at Beaufort. The present writer has not recognized the tooth in the collection of the U. S. National Museum.
In Rutgers College are six or more teeth or parts of teeth of _E. columbi_, recorded as coming from Coosaw River. In the collection of Amherst College the writer has seen two lower hindermost molars, labeled as collected in Coosaw River.
2. _Edisto River._—In the collection of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia there is a fragment of a molar of _Elephas columbi_, comprising only 2 ridge-plates, recorded as having been found in or on Edisto River. The specimen is credited to Dr. H. C. Chapman. While the locality is indefinite, it probably was somewhere around Edisto Island.
3. _Charleston, Charleston County._—Numerous teeth of _Elephas columbi_ have been found in the region surrounding Charleston. Godman (Amer. Nat. Hist., vol. II, p. 257) referred to a statement made by Catesby to the effect that negroes had found teeth along Stono River which they recognized as those of an elephant. This had previously been mentioned by Barton in his “Archæologia Americana,” 1814. In Holmes’s “Post-Pliocene Fossils of South Carolina,” page 108, Leidy stated that small fragments of teeth and bones, usually much water-worn, of the extinct elephant are not infrequently found in the Post-Pliocene deposits in the vicinity of Ashley River. In a footnote to this remark, F. S. Holmes stated that later a perfect tooth had been discovered and was figured on plate XVII; but the tooth there figured came from Texas.
In 1870 (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1870, p. 98), Leidy reported that he had seen in the collection of C. N. Shepard, at Amherst College, remains of elephant from Ashley River. It is certain that at least a part of these remains belonged to _Elephas columbi_. In the U. S. National Museum are teeth, recorded as having been secured from the phosphate beds about Charleston. As an example may be mentioned No. 2105, a large upper right molar, with 20 ridge-plates. Another has the number 1614 (Hay, Iowa Geol. Surv., vol. XXIII, p. 413, plate LXI, fig. 4).
In the Charleston Museum the writer has seen a lower second milk molar (No. 13504) of this species. There are 9 ridge-plates and front and rear talons. The length is 123 mm., the width 52 mm., with 8 plates in a 100–mm. line. In the same museum is an upper left second milk molar (No. 1109) with 8 plates present. The length along the base is 95 mm.; from the base in front to the rear of the crown 117 mm.; width 55 mm. This tooth appears to have been found somewhere about Charleston. In the same museum are other teeth of this species, mostly parts of the hindermost molars. Other teeth are found in the private collections of Charleston.
In the American Museum of Natural History, New York, there are some teeth (Nos. 13707, 13708) from the vicinity of Charleston which are referred to _Elephas columbi_. One is an upper hindermost molar, worn to the base in front and having left 18 plates. There are 6 plates in a 100–mm. line. The enamel is thick. The length of the tooth is 292 mm.; the width, 90 mm. Another is a worn lower tooth with 16 plates.
Another tooth, either a last milk molar or a first true molar, is not worn to the base and retains the front root. There are 12 plates and a large talon and a 100–mm. line crosses 8 plates. The enamel is thick and considerably festooned. The greatest length of the tooth is 173 mm. There is another lower right tooth, probably the last milk molar, which presents 11 plates and front and rear talons. There are nearly 8 plates in a 100–mm. line.
Another right lower tooth, apparently the first true molar, 165 mm. long on the grinding-face, has likewise 8 plates in 100 mm. A part of an upper hindermost molar preserves 11 plates. There are 6 plates in 100 mm. and the enamel is thick and folded.
For a list of the vertebrate fossils found in the region about Charleston, and their geological age, the reader is referred to page 363.
4. _Head of Cooper River, Berkeley County._—In 1802, John Drayton (“A View of South Carolina,” p. 40, plate, fig. 5) wrote that elephant bones had been discovered in the excavation of a canal joining Santee and Cooper Rivers. Drayton’s illustration shows that this tooth must have belonged to _Elephas columbi_. The locality was in Biggin Swamp, apparently not far from Monks Corner. At the same time and place were found remains of _Mammut americanum_. The materials are said to have been deposited in the Charleston Library. Barton (Archæologia Amer., p. 22) stated he had examined teeth of both the mastodon and the elephant from this place. Richard Harlan (Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., ser. 1, vol. III, p. 66, plate V, fig. 3; Med. Phys. Res. p. 359, plate, fig. 3) stated that a tooth of an elephant from the Santee Canal had been sent to the Academy at Philadelphia.
GEORGIA.
(Map 12.)
1. _Brunswick, Glynn County._—This is the type locality of _Elephas columbi_. This species was based by Falconer (Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc. Lond., XIII, 1857, table opposite p. 219) on a part of a tooth received from the geologist Charles Lyell and which had been found in the Brunswick Canal. The specimen consisted of 10 median plates of a lower second or third molar. Falconer figured it in 1868 (Palæont. Mem., vol. II, pp. 214, 221, plate X). Lyell (Second Visit, etc. vol. I, p. 348) noted that an elephant had been found in excavating the canal. Richard Harlan, in 1842 (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., vol. I, p. 189), stated that a large collection of bones of various animals had been presented to the Academy by J. Hamilton Couper, of Darien, Georgia. Among these were teeth of _E. primigenius_. Couper, in 1848 (Hodgson’s Memoir, etc., p. 45), stated that two lower jawbones with teeth, several loose teeth, two tusks, and several vertebræ of _Elephas primigenius_ had been collected in the canal during 1838 and 1839. These remains quite certainly belonged to _Elephas columbi_ unless possibly some belonged to _E. imperator_.
Leidy (Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., vol. VII, 1869, p. 254) records the presence in the collection of the Academy of a lower molar of _E. columbi_. The present writer has seen in this collection parts of four teeth of this species which had been sent from the Brunswick Canal, doubtless parts of the Couper collection. The species are listed on page 369.
2. _Skidaway Island, near Savannah, Chatham County._—Lyell (Second Visit, etc., vol. I, p. 314) reported that _Elephas primigenius_ had been found at this place, with _Megatherium_, _Mylodon_, _Mastodon_, and what was doubtless a species of _Bison_. Habersham, in 1846 (Hodgson’s Memoir, etc., p. 29), mentioned two teeth which he identified likewise as _E. primigenius_. These elephant teeth are all to be referred with much certainty to _E. columbi_.
For the examination of the geology about Savannah the reader is referred to page 371, map 40.
FLORIDA.
(Maps 12, 13.)
1. _St. Marks River, Wakulla County._—In 1870 (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1870, p. 98), Leidy stated that from this place there was in the collection of the Natural History Society of Boston a molar of the thick-plated variety of elephant. The grinding-surface, irregular and worn so as to present a terraced appearance, has a length of 8.5 inches and included 11 ridge-plates. The species is quite certainly _Elephas columbi_.
It may be mentioned that Sellards (8th Ann. Rep. Florida Geol. Surv., p. 103) reported that part of a skeleton of a mastodon or of an elephant had been obtained from Wakulla Spring by Mr. John L. Thomas. This is near Crawfordville.
2. _Station 120, Duval County._—Sellards (8th Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv. Florida, p. 106) reported that _Elephas columbi_ had been discovered at Station 120, on the Inland Waterway Canal. At the same place had been found _Mammut americanum_, an undetermined species of _Bison_, and an undetermined species of _Odocoileus_. The locality is probably 5 miles south of Pablo Beach.
3. _Citra, Marion County._—In January 1914, the writer saw at Ward’s Establishment, at Rochester, New York, the hinder half of a lower left hindermost molar of _Elephas columbi_, labeled as found at Citra. No details were preserved respecting the history of the tooth. There were 6 ridge-plates in a 100–mm. line.
4. _Near Mantanzas, St. John County._—At the residence of Fred R. Allen, St. Augustine, Florida, the writer has seen part of four hindermost molars, three upper and one lower, of _Elephas columbi_, found in the Inland Waterway Canal, near his farm, 28 miles south of St. Augustine, apparently not far from Mantanzas. At the same place have been found _Mammut americanum_, _Equus_ sp., _Mylodon harlani_, and _Terrapene antipex_. Sellards (8th Rep. p. 106) adds to this list an undetermined species of _Bison_ and one of _Odocoileus_.
5. _Ocala, Marion County._—From this place Leidy (Trans. Wagner Inst., vol. II, p. 17, plate III, figs. 6–9) has described and figured a first and a second milk molar. The figures have been reproduced by the writer (Iowa Geol. Surv., vol. XXIII, plate LXI, figs. 2, 3, 5, 6). These teeth certainly belong to _Elephas columbi_. They were found in a fissure in a limestone rock, near Ocala, in the property of Mr. F. M. Phillips. With them were a part of a skull of _Smilodon floridanus_, teeth of a horse which Leidy referred to his _Equus fraternus_ (=_E. leidyi_), and teeth supposed to belong to the little camel _Procamelus (Auchenia) minimus_. These fossils were referred to the Pliocene, but apparently there is not sufficient reason for doing so. The geology of the locality is treated on page 378.
6. _Dunnellon, Marion County._—In the collection of the Florida Geological Survey, No. 2232, is a part of the rear of what is regarded as a hindermost upper molar, found in a phosphate mine near Dunnellon. There are 7 ridge-plates, but some are missing from the front and some from the rear. The height of the front plate present is 210 mm.; the width is 82 mm. There are 6 plates in a 100–mm. line. This tooth is remarkable because of its thinness. It is possibly a more anterior tooth, but is rather high to be such.
The geology of the neighborhood of Dunnellon and a list of the species collected there are to be found on page 376.
7. _Holder, Citrus County._—In the collection of Dr. H. G. Bystra, chemist of the Buttgenbach river mine, is a fragment of a tooth of _Elephas columbi_, found in the mine, on Withlacoochee River, a few miles north of Holder, in section 29, township 17 south, range 19 east. In the same collection are a fragment of an upper and one of a lower molar, found in the same place in dredging for phosphate rock.
21. _Sumterville, Sumter County._—In the collection of the Florida Geological Survey (No. 240) is a single plate of a tooth of _Elephas columbi_, found by Dr. Sellards 3 miles east of Holder.
16. _Daytona, Volusia County._—In 1916 (8th Ann. Rep. Florida Geol. Surv., p. 105), Sellards stated that Mr. Morris, of Daytona, had found in a marl pit a tooth of _Elephas columbi_. As stated on page 122, remains of _Mammut americanum_ have been found in similar pits. In these pits were collected a piece of a tusk of a proboscidean and a rib of a whale, thought to belong to the genus _Balænoptera_.
In the Fifth Annual Report of the Florida Geological Survey, on pages 222 to 225, are presented the logs of artesian wells put down at Daytona. In one well was found a bed of white marl at a depth of 6 feet, having a thickness of 9 feet. It is possible that this corresponds to the marl-bed which furnished the elephant and whale, and it may belong to the first glacial stage.
8. _Tampa, Hillsboro County._—In the collection of Heidelberg University, Tiffin, Ohio, the writer has seen a fragment consisting of two plates of an upper molar of _Elephas columbi_, labeled as having been found at Tampa.
9. _St. Petersburg, Pinellas County._—In the museum of the State University at Gainesville, Florida, is an upper left second molar of _Elephas columbi_ recorded as having been found at Indian Rock, a village near St. Petersburg, in the peninsula west of Tampa Bay. The tooth is covered with barnacles and had evidently been in salt water. No other information was secured respecting the tooth.
10. _Kingsford, Polk County._—In the collection of Yale University is a fragment of a lower molar of _Elephas columbi_, recorded as having been found at Kingsford. It was obtained under 19 feet of phosphate rock and sand. The collector was Juan C. Edmundoz. There are present 5 coarse plates. The tooth belongs possibly to _E. imperator_. As recorded on another page, teeth of horses have been found in the same situation. If correctly reported, they belong, with the phosphate, to the Nebraskan stage of the Pleistocene.
Comments
Log in to leave a comment.
The Pleistocene of North AmericaChapter XVII: On the Theory of the Pleistocene Terraces of the Coastal Plain (9)
0%37 min left in chapter