Jour. Sci., vol. V, pp. 438–439), E. Billings gave an account of the
discovery of remains of a white whale at Cornwall. Considerable parts of
the skull were secured, including the lower jaws. Besides many vertebræ
and some other parts, 8 teeth were saved, but the ear-bones were
missing. The animal had been about 15 feet long. Whether it belonged to
_Delphinapterus leucas_ or _D. vermontanus_ may be regarded as doubtful.
Extracts from Billings’s description are to be found in Professor
Perkins’s paper (Rep. State Geologist Vermont, 1907–8, pp. 81–82).
6. _Williamstown, Glengarry County._—This place is about 10 miles
northeast of Cornwall. In Professor Perkins’s paper just cited it is
stated that Edward Ardley, assistant curator at Redpath Museum, McGill
University, Montreal, had found here a few bones of a white whale, the
hyoid, a few phalanges, and rib fragments. It is impossible from such
limited materials to determine whether the animal was _Delphinapterus
vermontanus_ or _D. leucas_. From Mr. Ardley, through Mr. Arthur Willey,
curator of Redpath Museum, the present writer has learned that these
bones were dug up from a depth of 14 feet, in a well sunken in the Leda
clay. Under the surface soil was a band of sandy clay containing shells
of _Saxicava_ and _Mya_. Beneath this was a stiff blue clay showing
stratification and containing shells of _Leda_.
QUEBEC.
7. _Montreal._—In 1863 (Rep. Geol. Surv. Canada, p. 919), W. E. Logan
announced the finding of some bones of a whale at the Mile-End quarries,
Montreal, on a slight ridge, “where are found stratified sand and gravel
holding boulders and shells in the lower part.” In corresponding clays
in a neighboring brickyard was found a pelvis of a seal, _Phoca
grœndlandica_. In 1895 (Canad. Rec. Sci., vol. VI, p. 351), Dr. J. W.
Dawson reported the discovery of a nearly complete skeleton of another
white whale at Montreal. This was found in brick clay, near Papineau
Road. The locality is said by Dawson to be about 100 feet above the St.
Lawrence; the bones were in the clay at a depth of 22 feet. The clay
itself was probably deposited at a depth of 50 to 80 fathoms. This is
said by Dawson to correspond approximately with a well-marked shore-line
at Montreal, found at a height of about 470 feet above the sea and with
the old sea-beach at Smith’s Falls as related on page 17. In 1916, Mr.
Edward Ardley, assistant curator of Redpath Museum, reported (Canad.
Rec. Sci., vol. IX, pp. 490–493) the discovery of a large part of the
skeleton of a white whale, supposed to belong to _Delphinapterus
leucas_, at Montreal East. The skeleton was buried in Leda clay about 15
feet above St. Lawrence River. It was 10.5 feet long. The cranium and
lower jaw were secured, besides parts of the trunk and limbs.
8. _Rivière du Loup, Temiscouata County._—In his work, “Canadian Ice
Age,” 1894, on page 268, Dr. J. W. Dawson reported that bones of _Beluga
catodon_ (_Delphinapterus leucas_) had been found at the place
mentioned. It is not probable that parts sufficient for making a
definite determination were secured, nor did Dawson give any details
regarding the geological conditions connected with the discovery.
Doubtless the remains were found in marine deposits of one of the
terraces.
9. _Metis, Rimouski County._—In the work just cited (p. 269), Dawson
stated that in the summer of 1891 he secured a large jawbone of a whale
which had been found in digging a cellar in the shelly marl of the lower
terrace at Metis. He did not identify the species, but appears to imply
that it belonged to either the “humpback” (_Megaptera boöps_) or to one
of the finner whales (_Balænoptera_).
NEW BRUNSWICK.
10. _Jaquet River, Restigouche County._—In 1874 (Trans. Nova Scotia
Inst. Sci., vol. III, pp. 400–404), Dr. J. B. Gilpin gave an account of
the discovery of some cetacean bones in a railroad cut at the place
named, but did not identify the bones otherwise than as those of a small
cetacean. In the same year (Amer. Jour. Sci., ser. 3, vol. VII, p. 597),
in a short, unsigned communication, this discovery was mentioned and the
whale was identified as _Beluga vermontana_. In volume VIII of the same
journal (1874, p. 219), Dr. D. Honeyman described the deposit and gave a
list of the shells found in it. Dawson (Canad. Ice Age, p. 268) refers
the bones to _Beluga catodon_. The locality is a cut of the
International Railway, on the north side of the Jaquet River, about 0.25
mile from the sea. Gilpin gives the elevation as 40 feet above the sea;
the writer of the unsigned communication just mentioned gives it as 25
feet.
Professor G. H. Perkins (Rep. State Geologist Vermont, 1907–8, pp.
102–112) studied the bones described by Gilpin. They consisted of 18
vertebræ, some fragments of the skull, one of the ear-bones, a part of
the lower jaw, some fragments of ribs, and some arm-bones. He identified
the animal as belonging to the genus _Monodon_ and probably _M.
monoceros_, the existing narwhal.
11. _Mace’s Bay, Charlotte County._—In 1879 (Geol. Survey of Canada,
1877–78, EE, p. 23), Mr. G. F. Matthew reported the discovery of a ramus
of the lower jaw of a whale, possibly a species of _Delphinapterus_, at
the mouth of the Popologan (or Pocologan) River. It is now in the
Mechanics’ Institute at St. John. It had fallen from a bank of Leda
clay. It probably belongs to the late Pleistocene.
VERMONT.
12. _Charlotte, Chittenden County._—At this place were discovered
considerable parts of a whale, described in 1850 (Amer. Jour. Sci., ser.
2, vol. IX, pp. 256–263) by Zadock Thompson, under the name _Beluga
vermontana_. The animal has by many been regarded as identical with the
white whale, _Delphinapterus leucas_, now appearing sometimes as far up
as Montreal. A more extended description of it was given in 1853 (Hist.
Vermont, Append., p. 15, figs. 1–13). This was reproduced in Edward
Hitchcock’s Report on the Geology of Vermont, 1861, page 164, and was
followed by remarks on the specimen by Edward Hitchcock jr. In the
second volume of the work just cited (p. 938) Hager furnished a figure
of the skeleton as mounted. In 1908 (Rep. State Geologist Vermont,
1907–8, pp. 76–112, plates X-XIX), Professor G. H. Perkins gave an
extended description of the remains and reached the conclusion that _D.
vermontanus_ is distinct from _D. leucas_. Since Perkins’s article gives
a full history of the discovery and the literature pertaining to the
specimen, this account will be much abridged. The bones were found in
making a cut for the Rutland and Burlington Railroad, at the town of
Charlotte, about a mile east of the shore of Lake Champlain. The bones
were 8 or 9 feet below the surface and “were very completely bedded in
fine adhesive blue clay.” The locality is 60 feet above the mean level
of the lake and 150 feet above the sea. The deposits were laid down in
the marine waters which took possession of Lake Champlain and the St.
Lawrence Valley when the Wisconsin glacial ice had withdrawn north of
St. Lawrence River. The geological age of the animal is therefore late
Pleistocene.
NORTH CAROLINA.
13. _Below New Bern._—In 1842 (Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. XLIII, p. 143),
Richard Harlan reported regarding the species of fossil vertebrates
found 16 miles below New Bern. His list, which was long and consisted
mainly of vernacular names, included “cetaceans.”
SOUTH CAROLINA.
14. _Charleston._—In 1860 (Holmes’s Post-Pliocene Foss. South Carolina,
p. 117, plate XXIV, fig. 9), Leidy described a cetacean tooth which he
called _Physeter antiquus_. Later the specific name was changed to
_vetus_. At the same time he figured a tooth (fig. 8) found in the
Ashley River deposits. He further stated that teeth apparently of the
same species had been taken from the Miocene formations of Virginia, but
found no characters by which they could be distinguished from those of
the recent sperm whale.
GEORGIA.
15. _Brunswick._—In 1911 (Bull. No. 26, Geol. Surv. Georgia, p. 436),
Gidley reported from here, among other vertebrates, some teeth which he
regarded as those of _Physeter vetus_; but this may not be correct and
they may not belong to the Pleistocene.
FLORIDA.
16. _Daytona, Volusia County._—In 1916 (Florida Geol. Surv., vol. VIII,
p. 105), Doctor Sellards stated that he had obtained from marl-pits
worked at this place for road materials a proboscidean tusk and a rib of
a whale, probably of the genus _Balænoptera_. At the same place had been
found a tooth of _Elephas columbi_.
17. _De Land, Volusia County._—At this place was obtained the dolphin
skull which Sellards described as _Globicephalus bæreckeii_ (Florida
Geol. Surv., vol. VIII, p. 107, plate XIV). It was found embedded in
sand at a depth of 10 feet. This sand overlies marls which are regarded
as Pliocene or Miocene. Sellards believed that the sands belonged to the
Pleistocene. It is not improbable that the marls pertain to the
Pleistocene of the first glacial time.
FINDS OF PLEISTOCENE PINNIPEDIA IN EASTERN NORTH AMERICA.
(Map 2.)
GRINNELL LAND.
_Dumbbell Harbor._—In 1877 (Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 4, vol. XX, p.
488), Fielden published a paper on the Post-Tertiary beds of Grinnell
Land and north Greenland. Fielden and De Rance reported on the same
subject in 1878 (Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc. Lond., vol. XXXIV, p. 566). In
beds having an elevation of 400 feet, in latitude 82° 30′, there were
obtained meager remains of _Phoca hispida_ and _Ovibos moschatus_. In
latitude 82° 25′ were secured remains of _Rangifer tarandus_, _Ovibos
moschatus_, and _Phoca barbata_. The invertebrate fauna was found to be
identical with that existing there to-day. If the beds are of
Pleistocene age, as the elevation appears to indicate, they may be
referred to the Late Wisconsin.
NOVA SCOTIA.
1. _Sable Island._—In the collection of the Philadelphia Academy there
is a walrus skull which was sent to the Academy from Sable Island about
1871. According to Rhoads (Proc. Phila. Acad., 1898, p. 197), Leidy
regarded this skull as that of a recent individual; but Rhoads states
that “the specimen is of precisely the same nature in color, texture,
and specific gravity as the larger fossil specimen which Leidy described
and figured in the Philosophical Transactions and which came from the
beach at Long Branch, New Jersey.” He thinks that it had been derived
from an ancient raised sea-beach. This does not appear to be at all
improbable.
NEW BRUNSWICK.
2. _Fairville, Charlotte County._—In 1879 (Geol. Surv. Canada, Rep. for
1877–8, EE, p. 23), Dr. G. F. Matthew reported the discovery of a
skeleton of _Phoca grœnlandica_ near Fairville, at the mouth of St. John
River, New Brunswick. The fore limbs and several vertebræ were missing.
The skeleton was afterwards destroyed in a fire at St. John. The bones
were found at a depth of about 25 feet, in the lower Leda clay.
QUEBEC.
3. _Bic, Rimouski County._—In Le Naturaliste Canadien (vol. XXXVI, 1908,
p. 51), the editor, V. A. Huard, in commenting on a letter written to
him and announcing the capture of a walrus somewhere on the northern
coast of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, recalled an article contributed in
1869 by the former editor, a priest named Provancher (Le Naturaliste
Canad., vol. II, p. 19). This writer stated that some workmen employed
in the construction of the International Railway had discovered at Bic,
Rimouski County, Quebec, on the southern shore of the St. Lawrence, a
complete skeleton of a walrus. This skeleton had a length of 13 feet. It
was found at a depth of 14 feet, in a compact clay, and at a height of
more than 100 feet above sea-level. The skeleton was deposited in the
museum of the Rimouski Seminary, but was destroyed in a fire in 1881.
It is evident that when that animal died and was buried in the clay the
land in that region stood at a level at least 100 feet lower than at
present.
Through the late Mr. L. M. Lambe, of the Canada Geological Survey, the
writer has received from Mr. W. A. Johnston, who made a special study of
the Pleistocene, information regarding the age of the clays at Bic. He
says that little can be said definitely regarding the age of the clays
in which the walrus skeleton was found. Clays belonging to the Champlain
submergence stand now at an elevation of 311 feet in that vicinity; and
marine shells occur in clays, supposed to belong to the Champlain, at an
altitude of 120 feet. There is a possibility that some of the clays in
that region are earlier than the time of the Wisconsin. Mr. Johnston
cites Guide Book No. 1, part I, pp. 77–78, of the Canada Survey, and
Dawson’s Ice Age, 1893, pp. 186–195. The first article was written by J.
W. Goldthwait. On page 921 of Logan’s Geology of Canada, 1863, it is
stated that bones of whales and of the morse have been found partially
embedded in the Leda clay in several places between Bic and Matanne,
about 60 miles farther down the river.
4. _Montreal, Quebec._—In 1863, Logan (Geol. Surv. Canada, p. 920) told
of the discovery of a skeleton of _Phoca grœndlandica_ near Montreal.
The exact locality appears to be about 0.75 mile east of what was then
known as the Mile-end quarries. These quarries were about 100 feet above
sea-level, and the spot where the skeleton was found was about 40 feet
lower down. At a nearby brickyard some bones of a young seal were
discovered which belonged probably to the same species. One of the
pelvic bones of a seal was found also at the Mile-end quarries. Dr. J.
W. Dawson (“Canadian Ice Age,” 1844, p. 267) stated that the skeleton
was found in the Leda clay; that it is in the collection of the
Geological Survey, at Ottawa; and that detached bones are in the Peter
Redpath Museum of McGill University at Montreal. The Leda clay, at least
that of the upper portion of the St. Lawrence Valley, is now referred to
the Champlain epoch, a time when the sea had invaded this valley and
even Lake Ontario.
5. _Tétreauville, Ottawa County._—In 1897 H. M. Ami (Ottawa Naturalist,
vol. XI, p. 24) announced that he and Ruggles Wright had found some
bones which were probably those of a young harbor seal, _Phoca
vitulina_. They were collected in 1888, in a sandy layer about 30 feet
below the surface, on a hillside, at Wright’s brick clay pits, on Aylmer
Road, Tétreauville, Quebec. This place is about 5 miles west of Hull,
and within 10 miles of Ottawa. These bones are in the Victoria Museum at
Ottawa. Besides the left half of the lower jaw with teeth, there are
both ear-bones, one exoccipital, the greater portion of the backbone,
scapula, part of the pelvis, and some of the larger limb-bones. This
species is abundant in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and also ascends the
larger rivers to a great distance. Doubtless great numbers inhabited the
inland sea which, during Champlain times, is believed to have occupied
the valley of the St. Lawrence, Lake Ontario, and the valley of the
Ottawa River nearly as far up as the city of Ottawa.
ONTARIO.
6. _Ottawa._—Remains believed to belong to _Phoca grœnlandica_ have been
found near Ottawa, Ontario. In 1856 (Proc. Phila. Acad. Nat. Sci., vol.
VIII, p. 90, plate III), Doctor Leidy described and figured the hinder
limbs of a young aquatic animal which he regarded as a seal, but did not
more exactly identify. He expressed the opinion that its descendants
were yet sporting in the sea-borders of Canada. This specimen was found
in Gloucester Township, Carleton County, about 9 miles east of Ottawa.
The locality is on Green’s Creek, a tributary of the Ottawa River, the
bank of the creek being about 30 feet high and composed of clay. This is
regarded as being of Champlain age, the close of the Wisconsin stage.
Out of this clay were washed numerous nodules of hardened clay, many of
which contained organic remains, such as marine shells and fishes. Among
the latter are two species, the capelin (_Mallotus villosus_) and the
lump-sucker (_Cyclopterus lumpus_).
Later, at the same locality, a lower jawbone of a young seal was found,
which was identified as the harp seal; and it was even thought that it
might have belonged with the hinder limbs figured by Leidy. A figure of
this jaw, with some of the teeth, was published by Dawson in his
“Canadian Ice Age.”
MAINE.
7. _Addison Point, Washington County._—From the curator of the Portland
Society of Natural History, Arthur H. Norton, the information is
received that some portions of the skeleton of a walrus, several ribs,
parts of two limbs, and a phalanx of a digit, had been found at Reef
Point, near Addison Point, Maine. These remains are now in the
collection of the society just named. They had been collected in 1881 by
C. H. Boyd, who published an account of them (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus.,
vol. IV, p. 234). They had washed out of the bank on the eastern side of
Pleasant River, about 3 miles below Addison. They had been buried in a
stiff blue clay, about 2 feet above high-water. Above them there was 6
feet of the clay, and above this gravel and soil. Mr. Boyd stated that
he had seen a tusk, with a part of the socket, which had been washed out
at the same place.
8. _Andrews Island, Knox County._—The American Museum Journal for 1912
(vol. XII, pp. 269–270) contains an article which calls attention to a
walrus skull preserved in the American Museum of Natural History in New
York. It is reported as having been found by Sidney Norton, in December
1912, in 50 fathoms of water, near Andrews Island, off Owl’s Head,
Penobscot Bay. One of the tusks is complete, the other is gone; also the
occiput and zygomatic arches are missing. The bone is said to be quite
well petrified, which shows that the skull is not a recent one.
9. _Gardiner, Kennebec County._—In 1845 Charles Lyell visited (“Second
Visit to the United States,” vol. I, p. 44) Gardiner, Maine, and
examined a collection of fossil shells and crustacea which had been made
by Mrs. Frederic Allen from the glacial deposits of that vicinity. He
recognized the tooth of a walrus, which he stated was similar to the one
procured by him on Martha’s Vineyard. This tooth is said by Packard
(Mem. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. I, 1867, p. 246) to have been a tusk;
and he was informed that it had been taken by Lyell to London and had
been identified by Professor Richard Owen. Inasmuch as Owen regarded the
specimen found on Martha’s Vineyard as a species distinct from the one
now living on the Atlantic coast, it is to be supposed that the Gardiner
specimen also was thought to be different from the latter. Packard, in
another communication (Amer. Naturalist, vol. I, 1868, p. 268), states
that the tooth of the walrus and some teeth of a supposed bison were
discovered in the clay-beds at Gardiner by Lyell, or at least during his
visit, but it is evident that they had been collected before his
arrival.
In his discussion of the supposed bison teeth found in clay at Gardiner,
Dr. J. A. Allen (The American Bisons, 1876, pp. 89, 91) gives us some
information about the fate of Mrs. Frederic Allen’s collection. At her
death it passed into the possession of her daughter, by whom the greater
part of it was presented to Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine. Professor
Manton Copeland, of this college, informs the writer that the walrus
tusk is in their collection and bears the number FM20. It is badly
shattered. The length is about 75 mm.
The important matter concerning the remains of the walrus found at
Gardiner is to determine when the animal lived there. It is to be
assumed that the tusk had been buried in the Pleistocene clay at that
locality. This appears to belong to the closing period of the Wisconsin
stage, but there has been some dispute about its age.
Packard (Mem. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. I, pp. 245–246) gives a list
of the species which had been found in the clay at Gardiner. These are
nearly all invertebrates and indicate a climate somewhat colder than
that now existing there. Whether the time when the walrus lived at
Gardiner was before or after the culmination of the Wisconsin ice
period, it was so long ago that those deposits of clay, made in
sea-water of considerable depth, have since been lifted above sea-level
to a height of perhaps 200 feet.
10. _Portland, Cumberland County._—In the American Naturalist, volume
XII, 1878, page 633, it is recorded that the larger part of the skeleton
of a walrus, including the skull, with tusks over 5 inches long, had
lately been found in the Quaternary clays at Portland. It had been
discovered by workmen excavating for the foundation of the transfer
station of the Boston and Maine Railroad. The remains were partially
embedded in a layer of blue clay a foot thick, itself overlain by 2 feet
2 inches of a lighter clay. The latter contained casts and shells of 11
species of mollusks. J. A. Allen, in his work already quoted, states
that the skeleton was found at a depth of 7 feet. It was placed in the
museum of the Portland Society of Natural History, and is still there,
as reported by the curator, Arthur H. Norton.
Mr. Norton has sent the writer an extract from the report of the
committee which investigated this discovery. The bed of blue clay in
which the greater part of the skeleton was buried contained the
following species of mollusks: _Mya arenaria_, _Macoma sabulosa
(calcarea)_, _Mytilus edulis_, _Cardium (Serripes) grœndlandicum_,
_Saxicava distorta_, _Nucula antiqua_, _Leda tenuisulcata_, _L. truncata
(Yoldia glacialis)_, _Natica clausa_, _N. pusilla_, and _Astarte
striata_. The lighter-colored clay above the blue clay was more sandy
and adhered strongly to the bones. This clay contained _Mya arenaria_,
_Mytilus edulis_, _Serripes grœndlandicus_, _Astarte striata_, _Macoma
calcarea_, _Nucula antiqua_, _Natica_, and _Balanus_.
Above the lighter-colored clay just mentioned was a foot of a clay which
contained wood and roots, the unused portion of the brick clay that once
existed there, but which had been removed for the manufacture of bricks.
Inasmuch as the clay overlying the bed in which the remains were found
contains marine shells, it is certain that since their deposition the
land has been considerably elevated.
George N. Stone (Monogr. XXXIV, U. S. Geol. Surv., pp. 286–291) has
discussed the age of the glacial deposits at Portland. Professor M. L.
Fuller has written to the author that on the Maine coast the chief clay
is known as the Leda and is found at Portland and Gardiner, and that it
probably antedates the Wisconsin. This is not to be correlated with the
Leda clay of the St. Lawrence Valley. It corresponds rather to Clapp’s
“high-level clays” (Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., vol. XVIII, p. 505, seq.).
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
11. _Jeffries Reef, off Portsmouth._—The specimen from this place
consists of the greater part of the left side of the skull of a large
individual. The occipital and the exoccipitals are missing. The bone and
especially the tusk have suffered some decay. The fragment is labeled as
having been dredged from a depth of 50 to 75 fathoms on Eastern Jeffries
Reef. The bottom was hard. Jeffries Reef lies 5 or more miles off the
southernmost part of the Maine coast and extends from the Isle of Shoals
to Boon Island. The skull belonged to an old individual. The length from
the rear of the mastoid process to the front of the premaxilla is 360
mm. The exserted part of the tusk measures 225 mm. in length. At its
base the diameters are 65 mm. and 42 mm. There are 4 large grinding
teeth. There is no reason for supposing that the species represented is
not _O. rosmarus_.
MASSACHUSETTS.