Quadrangle, Throg’s Neck is occupied by till which usually thinly
covers, or leaves exposed, the underlying Hudson schist; Salisbury gives
an account of the drift on page 14 of the folio cited. At the depth
indicated the tooth was probably lying in pre-Wisconsin deposits; and
taking into consideration the geological age of other horse remains, one
may reasonably conclude that the tooth at Throg’s Neck was of a horse
that lived during the middle or early Pleistocene. That there may be
materials of a pre-Wisconsin stage underlying the surface drift at
Throg’s Neck is indicated by Woodworth’s discovery (Bull. 48, N. Y.
State Mus., p. 626, plate I) of deposits older than the Wisconsin along
Hempstead Bay, Long Island.
NOTE.—In 1858 (Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. VI, p. 303), Dr.
Skilton, of Troy, wrote that a farmer had dug up, in what had been
marshy ground, 17 teeth of a horse. These, Skilton stated, belonged
to _Equus major_. The teeth were greatly decayed. The writer of the
report said that the enamel of the first upper molar, meaning the
anterior of the six grinding teeth, measured 1.9 inches (47.5 mm.);
that of the corresponding lower teeth 2.33 inches (58 mm.). If these
measurements were taken correctly, they indicate a horse much larger
than any yet known, unless it be _Equus giganteus_ of Texas. There
is no evidence that Dr. Skilton had made any serious study of the
dentition of horses and the teeth were probably those of a domestic
horse, or even of some other animal.
In 1884 (Trans. Linn. Soc. N. Y., vol. II, p. 47), Dr. C. Hart
Merriam, in his paper “The Vertebrates of the Adirondack Region,”
stated he had examined several fossil molar teeth of _Equus major_
exhumed at Keenes Station, near the Oswegatchie Ox Bow, in Jefferson
County, New York. He compared them with the corresponding teeth of
an immense dray horse and found them much larger.
Professor G. C. Manse, of St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York,
sent me for examination 4 upper teeth of a horse which must be those
examined by Dr. C. H. Merriam. They are labeled as having been
collected at Gouverneur, a town not far from Keenes Station. After a
careful study of these teeth and comparison with those of the
domestic horse, the writer concludes that they belonged to the
latter. Domestic horses are known to have larger teeth. Professor
Manse has unfortunately been unable to trace the history of the
teeth back to Dr. C. C. Benton, of Ogdensburg, who showed them to
Dr. Merriam.
NEW JERSEY.
(Map 17.)
1. _Swedesboro, Gloucester County._—In 1868 (Cook’s Geol. New Jersey, p.
741), Cope stated that _Equus complicatus_ was represented in New Jersey
by a series of teeth obtained while a mill-dam at Swedesboro was being
cleared. No further information has been secured. At the Academy of
Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, the writer has seen a horse-tooth
labeled as coming from the town named; but whether or not it is one of
those referred to by Cope it is impossible to say.
2. _Fish House, Camden, Camden County._—In 1869 (Trans. Amer. Philos.
Soc., vol. XIV, p. 250, fig. 55), Cope wrote that a partial skull of
_Equus fraternus_ had been found at Fish House in a blackish clay at a
depth of 20 feet from the top of the clay. Over the clay was imposed a
bed of sand from 8 to 15 feet thick. This important skull appears to
have been lost (fig. 7).
In 1897 (Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv. New Jersey for 1896, p. 208, plate X),
Lewis Woolman described other remains of horses supposed to belong to
_Equus complicatus_, secured in the same Fish House clays. The writer
has seen these and regards them as belonging to the species just named.
These remains of horses will be mentioned on pages 302–303.
3. _Navesink Hills, Monmouth County._—Somewhere in the northeastern part
of Monmouth County, in the region of the Navesink (or Neversink) Hills,
have been found remains of a fossil horse. They were first mentioned by
S. L. Mitchill (Cat. Organ. Remains, 1826, pp. 7, 8). He mentioned a
cervical vertebra and teeth in sound condition. Leidy (Jour. Acad. Nat.
Sci., Phila., vol. VII, p. 261) wrote that a vertebra and teeth were
associated with remains of a mastodon. Mitchill mentions only a part of
a tibia of a mastodon. These objects were all presented by Mitchill to
the Lyceum of Natural History in New York. The writer believes these
teeth had been buried in an early Pleistocene deposit.
PENNSYLVANIA.
(Map 17.)
1. _Pittston, Luzerne County._—In the collection of the Academy of
Natural Sciences at Philadelphia are 2 horse-teeth found at or near
Pittston. They were described and figured by Leidy in 1873 (Monograph U.
S. Geol. Surv., I, pp. 245–246, plate XXXIII, figs. 16, 17) as _E.
major_ (=_E. complicatus_). He stated they were found on the banks of
the Susquehanna River, associated with remains of mastodons and _Bison
latifrons_. The last was, however, a species of _Symbos_. In 1869 (Jour.
Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., vol. VII, p. 262), Leidy stated that it was
reported these remains had come from a stratum “full of bones.” This
stratum belonged probably to an early or middle Pleistocene interglacial
stage.
2. _Stroudsburg, Monroe County._—In 1889 (Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv.
Pennsylvania for 1887, p. 6), Leidy reported the finding of “a pair of
teeth of a horse, which were yet incompletely developed,” in Hartman’s
Cave, near the town mentioned. He thought they belonged to an indigenous
species. The position of the cave, its fossils, and their age will be
considered in discussing the Pleistocene geology of the State on pages
308 to 311.
3. _Port Kennedy, Montgomery County._—As long ago as 1871 (Amer. Jour.
Sci., ser. 3, vol. I, pp. 235, 384), Wheatley announced the discovery of
2 unidentified species of horses in the great bone cave at the place
named. They were associated with the remains of 40 other species of
vertebrates, besides many insects. In 1899 (Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci.,
Phila., ser. 2, vol. II, pp. 193–267, plates XVIII-XXI), Cope described
the materials collected up to that time from the same cave. Of horses he
recorded 2 forms, which he named _Equus fraternus fraternus_ and _E.
fraternus pectinatus_. He was inclined to believe the latter would prove
to be a distinct species. It is not certain whether this conclusion was
correct; but if not a species, it is probably a subspecies of _Equus
complicatus_. The teeth referred to _E. fraternus fraternus_ are pretty
certainly those of _E. complicatus_. Of this species Cope had a decayed
skull of a young animal with teeth, besides a considerable number of
other teeth and some bones of the skeleton. The geological relations of
these remains and those of the other species will be discussed on pages
311 to 320.
4. _Rutherford, Dauphin County._—In 1868 (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., 1868,
p. 195), Leidy described a horse-tooth, loaned him by Mr. W. Lorenz and
found somewhere between Rutherford and Highspire. It was met in a
depression 6 feet deep and 20 feet across, filled with diluvium. Leidy
thought the tooth might have belonged to a contemporary of the mastodon,
but this was equally improbable. All the cement was dissolved from the
tooth, and the latter was stained by iron, but not petrified. It was an
upper second true molar. It has probably suffered the fate of such
specimens as are retained in private hands.
5. _Frankstown, Blair County._—From Mr. O. A. Peterson, of the Carnegie
Museum, Pittsburgh, the writer learns that some part of an unidentified
species of horse has been found in the collection made some years ago at
Frankstown. For a list of the species page 321 may be consulted.
OHIO.
(Maps 17, 36.)
1. _Cincinnati, Hamilton County._—In 1895 (Jour. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist.,
vol. XVII, p. 217), Mr. Seth Hayes recorded the discovery of a molar
tooth and a vertebra of a horse, identified as _Equus fraternus_. It was
met with in exhuming the remains of the “Shaw mastodon” in Hyde Park, in
the northeastern part of Cincinnati. The details of the exhumation are
given in the description of the mastodon. The geological age of these
animals dates probably from about the Sangamon stage. The writer has not
been able to examine the horse remains referred to. It is probable that
the tooth belonged to _Equus complicatus_.
2. _Columbus, Franklin County._—In 1848 (Amer. Jour. Sci., ser. 1, vol.
_V_, p. 215), Charles Whittlesey stated that bones and teeth of a horse
had been found in fissures or “clay seams” of the Cliff limestone at
Columbus. In 1866 (Smithson. Contrib. Knowl., vol. XV, art. 3, p. 16),
the same geologist reported that Joseph Sullivant, of Columbus, had,
many years before, obtained from the crevices of the Cliff lime rock, on
the west side of Scioto River, a number of bones embedded in red clay.
Among these was the tooth of a horse. The crevice had not been open
since the date of the white settlement of the country and it was wholly
filled by the red clay which results from the decomposition of the
limestone. Probably all the remains mentioned by Whittlesey have been
lost.
In 1875 (Cin. Quart. Jour. Nat. Hist., vol. II, p. 154), Klippart wrote
that, in excavating the exterior wall at the Ohio penitentiary, the
warden, Mr. Burr, found the fossil jaw of a horse with the molars in
good condition. He stated the horse must have been one-third larger than
the ordinary horse of to-day.
From Professor Clinton R. Stauffer, of Adelbert College, Cleveland, the
writer received for examination a horse-tooth, labeled: “Catalogue No.
356. Horse-tooth. Given by Robert Cartwright. Found at Columbus, Ohio,
in excavating in a peat-bed for a gas holder in the penitentiary
grounds, October 30, 1873.” It is possible that this is the same tooth
mentioned by Klippart, but probably it is another. The present writer
identifies the tooth as that of _Equus complicatus_. The geological age
is probably approximately that of the Sangamon stage.
3. _Salt Creek, Columbiana County._—In 1866 (Smithson. Contrib. Knowl.,
art. 3, vol. V, p. 16), Charles Whittlesey reported a tooth of a horse
found, about 20 years before, in making the Sandy and Beaver Canal,
along Sandy Creek, in Columbiana County, at a depth not exceeding 12 or
15 feet. Probably the locality was in the southwestern corner of the
county. The sources of Salt Creek are in Hanover Township, not far from
the sources of Little Beaver Creek. From this vicinity Salt Creek flows
westward. This county lies within the Illinoian drift region and the
horse probably lived during the Sangamon stage or earlier.
INDIANA.
(Map 17.)
1. _Evansville, Vanderburg County._—So far as the writer knows, remains
of extinct horses have been found in Indiana only at the mouth of Pigeon
Creek, a short distance below Evansville. Only a single vertebra, a last
cervical, was secured. This formed part of a collection made at the
place named by Mr. Francis A. Lincke. The collection was described by
Dr. Leidy (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1854, p. 199). The bone was
referred to _Equus americanus_, a name employed at that time for the
horse now known as _Equus complicatus_. Although it would usually be
impossible to identify a species of horse on such materials, it is
probable that Leidy was correct. The geological age of the bone-bed is
discussed on page 32. It is concluded that the age is most probably the
Sangamon, but possibly Aftonian. The same species has been found at
Bigbone Lick, above Louisville, on the Kentucky side. The deposits there
overlie the Illinoian drift and are, in part at least, Sangamon.
Associated with the horse bone at Pigeon Creek were megalonyx, a
probably extinct bison, the Virginia deer, a tapir, and the extinct wolf
_Ænocyon dirus_.
ILLINOIS.
(Map 17.)
1. _On the line between Bond and Fayette Counties._—In 1899, Leidy
(Trans. Wagner Inst., vol. II, p. 39, figure) described under the name
of _Equus major_ an equine maxilla, containing 4 premolars, sent him by
A. H. Worthen, State geologist of Illinois. This maxilla had been found
in a bog between Bond and Fayette counties. It was referred by Gidley
(Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. XIV, p. 135, fig. 24) to _Equus
pectinatus_ Cope. The specimen is in the collection of the State museum
at Springfield and has been studied by the writer, who regards it as
belonging to _Equus complicatus_. A fossil horse-tooth found at Bigbone
Lick, Kentucky, greatly resembles one of the premolars of this jaw.
The region where this jaw was found lies within the area of the
Illinoian drift; and, inasmuch as the specimen was found on a bog lying
on this drift, the animal must have lived after the withdrawal of the
Illinoian ice-sheet. The bog deposit belonged probably to the Sangamon
stage.
The writer has endeavored earnestly, but in vain, to obtain more exact
details regarding the locality where the jaw was found and the depth of
interment.
2. _Alton, Madison County._—At a meeting of the St. Louis Academy of
Science, December 4, 1882 (Trans. St. Louis Acad. Sci., vol. IV, p.
LXXX), William McAdams reported he had seen the fossil tooth of a horse
from near Alton. No details were added, except that all the horses he
had seen from the drift were large animals, while those from the bad
lands of Dakota were mostly quite small.
In the McAdams collection, an account of which will be given on page
339, is a fragment of an incisor of a horse. It has on it McAdams’s No.
25. It is doubtful that this tooth was found in the loess. All the
fossils of that collection purporting to have been found in the loess
are very white, while this is of a brownish color, and there is a coat
of iron oxide adhering to some parts of it. This may or may not be the
tooth mentioned by McAdams as above reported.
3. _Greene County._—At the meeting of the St. Louis Academy of Science
just referred to, Mr. McAdams stated that teeth of an extinct horse had
been brought up from the bottom of a well being dug in Greene County.
More exact situation and the depth of the well were not mentioned.
Both Greene and Madison counties are occupied by the Illinoian
drift-sheet. The horse-teeth found in these counties might have come
from Sangamon deposits; or possibly the Illinoian drift had been passed
through and Yarmouth interglacial had been entered.
The geologists J. A. Udden and E. W. Shaw (Belleville-Breese Folio, No.
195, U. S. Geol. Surv., p. 7) have noted in those quadrangles deposits
which may consist of pre-Illinoian till; also old black soils which may
belong to the Yarmouth. The quadrangles mentioned lie along the southern
border of Madison County. The old soils were found at depths varying
from 30 to 75 feet. In this region, too, the Illinoian drift is overlain
by a blanket of loess. To arrive at any valuable conclusion, one ought
to know just where specimens are found and at what depths and in what
kind of deposits. On the other hand, the information is of the most
meager kind. The specimens mentioned are not in a collection made by
McAdams and now in the National Museum.
MARYLAND AND DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.
(Map 17.)
1. _Marshall Hall, Charles County._—In the U. S. National Museum is an
upper right molar, first or second, of a horse labeled as found at this
place. It is credited to Mr. O. N. Bryan, who, some years ago,
contributed many articles to the museum. The conditions of discovery are
not known. The length of the grinding-surface is 28 mm., the width 27
mm. It probably belongs to _Equus leidyi_. According to Shattuck’s map
of the Pliocene and Pleistocene of Maryland (Maryland Geol. Surv., 1906,
plate I) this locality is occupied by Talbot deposits. Shattuck regards
the Talbot as belonging to late Pleistocene times. The present writer
does not accept this view.
2. _Georgetown, District of Columbia._—In 1835 (Med. and Phys.
Researches, p. 267), Dr. Richard Harlan acknowledged the receipt, at the
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, of remains of a fossil
horse found at Georgetown in constructing the canal along the Potomac.
These were probably teeth and had been sent by Colonel I. J. Abert, of
Washington. They ought now to be in the Academy mentioned. In 1850, R.
W. Gibbes (Proc. Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sci., vol. III, p. 67) presented
before the American Association of Sciences a specimen (a tooth?) which
he said came from the bank of the Potomac and was associated with a
tooth of _Bos_ (_Bison_). How he came to have this was not related, nor
is it certain that it was found near Washington.
3. _Mitchellville, Prince George’s County._—In the U. S. National Museum
are 2 upper teeth, molars or premolars (No. 8813), of a horse found on
his estate northwest from the town named, by Mr. Edward S. Walker. They
were presented to the National Museum by Dr. Edward W. Berry, of John
Hopkins University. These teeth, apparently first and second molars,
seem to belong to an undescribed species. The table gives the height of
the teeth and dimensions of the grinding-surface in millimeters.
┌────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬────────────┐
│ Tooth. │ Height. │ Length. │ Width. │ Protocone. │
├────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┤
│M^1 │70 │29.5 │25 │12 │
│M^2 │73 │30 │23 │14.5 │
└────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┘
The teeth present the appearance of having been little worn.
Measurements of the crown taken about one-third the distance to the base
are as follows:
┌────────────────┬────────────────┬────────────────┬────────────────┐
│ Tooth. │ Length. │ Width. │ Protocone. │
├────────────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┤
│M^1 │25 │25 │11 │
│M^2 │26 │25.2 │13 │
└────────────────┴────────────────┴────────────────┴────────────────┘
The teeth are moderately curved, so that the outer face is convex, the
inner concave. Some of the cement is retained and is colored blue with
vivianite. The enamel presents less complication than is usually found
in either _Equus complicatus_ or _E. leidyi_. The dimensions of the
teeth and the narrowness, especially of the second molar, seem to
exclude reference to either of the species mentioned.
4. _Chesapeake Beach, Calvert County._—Mr. William Palmer, of the U. S.
National Museum, had for many years been making collections, mostly of
Miocene vertebrates, along the cliffs at Chesapeake Beach. Among other
fossils found there are some remains of horses, among them one much worn
upper tooth, probably a premolar. The height is only 21 mm., the length
of the grinding-surface 22.4 mm., the width 24 mm. It may be referred
provisionally to _E. leidyi_. Mr. Palmer had also an ungual phalanx and
a cervical vertebra and various other bones and teeth of horses. The
geological situation at the place and the other Pleistocene species
found there will be discussed on pages 347–348.
5. _Cavetown, Washington County._—In his work on the exploration of
Bushy Cavern, near Cavetown, Mr. Charles Peabody (Bull. IV, Dept.
Archæol., Phillips Acad., p. 12) stated that in a limestone quarry,
south of the cave, in the red earth, was found a tooth which J. W.
Gidley identified as probably _Equus complicatus_. In 1920 (Proc. U. S.
Nat. Mus., vol. LVIII, pp. 96–109), the writer described a collection
made at Cavetown. In this were other remains referred to _Equus
complicatus_. Some fragments of a large tooth were referred with doubt
to _Equus giganteus_.
6. _Corriganville, Allegany County._—In a crevice in a limestone rock,
at a point about 3 miles west of north of Cumberland, taken in a
straight line, J. W. Gidley, in the fall of 1912, made a large
collection of fossil vertebrates. In this collection is a first phalanx
of an extinct horse. The species has not been determined. A list of the
accompanying species, so far as determined, will be presented on pages
349–350.
VIRGINIA.
(Map 17.)
1. _Abingdon, Washington County._—In the U. S. National Museum is the
outer half of an upper hindermost molar of a horse sent, in 1869, by Mr.
Wyndham Robinson. With it were remains of _Mammut americanum_. The
length of the grinding-surface is 30 mm. It belongs pretty certainly to
_Equus complicatus_.
2. _Saltville, Smyth County._—Mr. O. A. Peterson (Ann. Carnegie Mus.,
vol. XI, p. 474) reported the occurrence of an upper left molar of a
horse at Saltville. The species has not been determined. The matter will
be referred to again on pages 352–353.
3. _Ivanhoe, Wythe County._—In 1869 (Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc., vol. XI,
pp. 171–182), Cope gave an account of the discovery of remains of
numerous fossil vertebrates somewhere along New River, in the county
named. Among these animals were upper and lower milk and permanent
molars of a horse. Cope identified these as belonging doubtfully to
_Equus complicatus_. On page 353, the Pleistocene geology of the region
and a list of the accompanying vertebrates will be presented.
4. _Staunton, Augusta County._—From Dr. W. F. Deekens, surgeon dentist
of Staunton, a tooth of a horse found somewhere in that vicinity, was
sent to the U. S. National Museum. It had been found in a limestone
quarry, 70 feet below the surface, in a narrow stratum of clay. Probably
the tooth had been carried down into a crevice in the limestone by a
current of water. The length of the grinding-surface is 31 mm. The
arrangement of the enamel folds is simple, but the tooth had only just
begun to be worn. The narrowness of the tooth is remarkable and it may
belong to an unrecognized species.
5. _Denniston, Halifax County._—From Mr. G. W. Joyner, living near this
place, the U. S. National Museum in 1920 received a left lower
grinding-tooth of a horse, found by the donor in a little stream on his
farm.
WEST VIRGINIA.
(Map 17.)
1. _Point Pleasant, Mason County._—From Dr. L. V. Guthrie,
superintendent of the West Virginia Asylum, at Huntington, the U. S.
National Museum received for examination a horse-tooth dredged up with
gravel from Ohio River at Point Pleasant. The writer has not been able
to distinguish this tooth (either the last or the next to the last
premolar) from that of _Equus niobrarensis_. If further discoveries
confirm this provisional determination, the known range of the species
will be greatly extended. The tooth has been deposited in the U. S.
National Museum by the owner, Captain H. S. Wert, of Point Pleasant. The
presence of this tooth proves that there are, somewhere not far away,
some early Pleistocene deposits, probably in some high terrace along the
Ohio, such as are found in abundance along the upper part of the river
and its affluents.
NORTH CAROLINA.
(Maps 17, 39.)
1 _Elizabethtown, Bladen County._—The geologist E. Emmons (North
Carolina Geol. Surv., 1858, p. 197, fig. 18) described and figured an
upper left second or third molar tooth of a horse which he called _Equus
caballus_, the domestic animal. It, with a tooth from the lower jaw, had
been found in a bed of Miocene age at Elizabethtown. Whatever may have
been the age of the marl-bed, the horse lived during the Pleistocene.
Conrad, however (Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. XLVII, 1869, p. 359), insisted
on the Miocene age of the animal. The same tooth was, in 1860 (Holmes’s
Post-Pl. Foss. South Carolina, plate XV, fig. 16), figured by Leidy and
referred to _E. fraternus_. It is now known as _E. leidyi_. Miller
(North Carolina Geol. and Econom. Surv., vol. III, p. 248) points out
that patches of Miocene marl do occur in the vicinity of Elizabethtown.
2. _Sixteen miles Southeast of Newbern, on the Neuse River, in Pamlico
County._—In a locality on the left bank of Neuse River, about 16 miles
below Newbern, bones of _Equus_ and various other animals were first
found long ago, apparently by Nuttall. T. A. Conrad, in 1838 (Fossils
Medial Tert. U. S., p. X), spoke of great numbers of bones of horse,
mastodon, etc. Harlan (Med. Phys. Res., p. 267) says that Conrad
possessed specimens from the locality. Lydekker (Cat. Foss. Mamm. Brit.
Mus. part 3, p. 89) states that there is in that museum an upper
cheek-tooth from Newbern. So far as the writer knows, none of the teeth
found here has been figured or accurately described.