is thus longer than the upper molars, slightly narrower, and not so
high.
A fragment of the hinder end of what appears to be the lower left second
molar shows 7 ridge-plates remaining. These form two series, an inner
and an outer, entirely separate from each other. This condition is
sometimes seen in little-worn teeth.
The geology of this region may be studied on the Tallula-Springfield
Folio, No. 188 of the U. S. Geological Survey. The Tallula Quadrangle
includes a narrow strip of the eastern border of Cass County. Here the
surface forms a nearly level prairie. According to the geologists Shaw
and Savage, the surface in the region next to Cass County and much of
the rest of the quadrangle is covered by a blanket of loess. Its
thickness varies from 4 to 20 feet; under this, sometimes, in wells, is
to be found a dark-colored ill-smelling deposit, of no great thickness,
which is believed to represent the Sangamon stage. Underlying the loess
everywhere is the Illinoian drift.
As regards the geological age of the elephant described above, it is
quite certain that it lived after the Illinoian stage. It is quite
probable, too, that its teeth and bones were found in the loess which
overlies the Sangamon soil in some places in the quadrangle. This loess
may have accumulated during the Iowan glacial stage or during the
succeeding Peorian interglacial. Considering what we know about the
habits of _Elephas primigenius_, it appears most probable that the
animal in question passed its life during some part of the Iowan.
3. _Kewanee, Henry County._—In the collection of the University of
Illinois, at Champaign, is a fragment of an upper molar of _Elephas
primigenius_, found at Kewanee. It was discovered in 1910, in making an
excavation for the National Tube Company, and was presented to the
university by Mr. J. E. Kemp, at that time engineer in charge of the
work of excavation. This gentleman has furnished very exact information
regarding the discovery of the tooth and the nature of the deposits
passed through.
Mr. Kemp himself saw the tooth taken out and states that it was found at
a depth of about 12 feet. As to the materials passed through, Mr. Kemp
writes:
“After the first 2 feet of soil carrying organic matter we have 5
feet of yellow clay above the ground-water level, and below this
approximately 3 feet of yellow clay which becomes very soft unless
carefully drained before working. This yellow clay then merges into
bluish clay, hard and better packed, going to a depth of
approximately 20 to 21 feet. At this level we meet with that black
soil which is known locally as ‘the chip yard’ and which contains
vegetation and pieces of wood, as you describe. This ‘chip yard’ is
a softer stratum than the overlying blue clay and caused difficulty
in the excavation of a hole approximately 20 feet by 30 feet and 20
feet deep, as the vibration of the reciprocating engines in the
building caused the bottom to rise in little hillocks over night,
and the last 2 feet of excavation had to be dug out and 24 inches of
concrete placed in the bottom, in order to preserve the excavation.”
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.