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. Here, 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 a 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
foot 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.
17. _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 a 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 reported. 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.
29. _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
inches in length. It was purchased for the State Cabinet. It could not
be determined whether this had belonged to an elephant or a mastodon.