Ohio and Auglaize County,” 1905, on page 338, with a figure, is an
account of the finding of a skull of _Castoroides ohioensis_ in section
29 of Washington Township, which is in township 6 south, range 5 east,
and near New Knoxville. The discovery had been made that beneath a bed
of humus there was a stratum of gravel of a quality for road making. In
removing the upper peaty layer, the head of the giant beaver was
discovered, near the south margin of the pond. Williamson stated that
the house of the animal was uncovered. It was between 3 and 4 feet high
and about 8 feet square; the poles of which it was constructed were
about 3 indies in diameter and were laid after the manner of the houses
of modern beavers. Apparently the beaver died in the house, and it was
thought that after the death of the beaver wolves or other carnivorous
animals had inhabited the house, since bones of deer and other animals
were strewn over the floor. It is to be regretted that the house, if
such it was, was not taken up in a way that it might have been
accurately reconstructed. Williamson’s account is reproduced in Bulletin
16, Geological Survey of Ohio, 4th series, 1912, page 39.
In Heidelberg University, Tiffin, Ohio, the writer has seen a very large
skull of _Castoroides_, labeled as found at Wapakoneta, but it is quite
certainly the one found at New Knoxville. Both incisors are broken off
close to their insertion in the skull. Williamson’s figure represents at
least the left one present.
MICHIGAN.
(Map 28.)
1. _Berrien County._—In the American Museum of Natural History, New
York, is a nearly complete skull with the left ramus of the lower jaw,
purchased from Mr. George A. Baker. The exact place in the county where
it was found is unknown, and the writer has been unable to get into
communication with Mr. Baker.
As to the time in the Pleistocene when this individual lived, we may be
sure that it was after the Wisconsin glacial ice-sheet had abandoned
this county. How long after this retirement it is impossible to say. It
is to be noted that both mastodons and mammoths have been found in this
county, in what appear to be deposits of the same age.
2. _Adrian, Lenawee County._—In the U. S. National Museum is a skull of
_Castoroides_ (Cat. No. 197), of which the lower jaw is missing. This
was received June 10, 1880, from Professor J. Kost, then of Adrian
College, Michigan. In his letter Professor Kost wrote as follows:
“Found in fresh-water marsh, 4 feet under, in Adrian, Lenawee Co.,
Michigan. In same place as the Decker mastodon, now in Adrian
College; also of lower jaw of smaller mastodon (sent in this
consignment), with various bones of elk, deer, etc.”
The mastodon jaw referred to is in the U. S. National Museum (No. 188).
The present writer has not been able to learn exactly where all these
bones were obtained. It would be interesting to know whether
all–mastodons, giant beaver, elk, and deer–were found in the same
excavation. It is probable that they were at least in nearly the same
spot. For remark on the age of the deposits at Adrian see page 81.
3. _Ann Arbor, Washtenaw County._—In the collection of the Department of
Geology in the University of Michigan is a skull which lacks the lower
jaw and is otherwise slightly injured. A report of this specimen was
made in 1914 by Mr. N. A. Wood (Science, n. s., vol. XXXIX, p. 759).
This was found several years ago in a peat-bog on the farm of Professor
J. B. Steere, 3 miles south of Ann Arbor, at a depth said to have been
about 3 feet. Beneath the peat and muck is a gravelly marl. According to
the Ann Arbor Folio (No. 155, U. S. Geol. Surv.), there is, running
south from the city, a strip of low ground designated as occupied by
peat and muck. This borders on the east a part of the Fort Wayne
moraine, and must have provided an ideal spot for colonies of these
great beavers. Naturally these specimens must be credited to the Late
Wisconsin stage.
4. _Attica, Lapeer County._—In the collection of Alma College, Alma,
Michigan, is a fragment of an upper incisor, found at a depth of 7 feet,
in digging the tail-race of a mill in Attica. The statement was made
that at the same place there were often found what appeared to have been
beaver dams made of wood. This wood crumbled on coming to the air. In
cases like this there is a fine opportunity to determine whether or not
the wood had been gnawed by the broad incisors of _Castoroides_ or by
the narrower ones of the existing beaver. The wood might easily be
prevented from crumbling by replacing the water with a solution of gum
arabic or even of glue.
Attica is situated some distance outside of the beaches of old Lake
Maumee, and on low ground between morainic tracts left by the Saginaw
lobe in its retreat. These gigantic beavers must, therefore, have lived
near the close of the Pleistocene.
5. _Owosso, Shiawassee County._—In the collection of the University of
Michigan (No. 3109) is the greater part of a lower jaw of a giant
beaver, found somewhere near Owosso, in a swamp deposit. An account of
this specimen was given in 1914 by Mr. N. A. Wood (Science, n. s., vol.
XXXIX, p. 758). It was received from Mr. A. G. Williams in 1892.
According to Leverett and Taylor’s glacial map of Michigan, Owosso lies
a few miles outside of the beach of old Lake Saginaw. This is supposed
to have come into existence about the close of the period of Lake
Maumee. The earliest time when this beaver might have existed, leaving
out the question of the climate, would coincide closely with the time
when the one found at Attica might have lived. It is most probable that
both lived at a time when the glacier front was farther away.
INDIANA.
(Maps 28, 30.)
1. _Vanderburg County._—In 1884 (14th Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv. Indiana, pt.
2, p. 37), in a footnote written probably by John Collett, State
geologist, it is stated that remains of _Castoroides ohioensis_ had been
found in this county. Inasmuch as this county lies outside of the drift
region, and as no details as to place and depth were given, we can
arrive at no conclusion as to the stage of the Pleistocene in which the
possessor of this tooth lived. The reader may consult page 258.
2. _Richmond, Wayne County._—About 2 miles east of Richmond, where a
farmer was scooping out wet earth for a fish-pond, there was found by
Joseph Moore (Amer. Geologist, vol. XII, p. 73) a fragment of an upper
incisor of this species. With it were sound and decayed teeth of the
mastodon. Most probably this fish-pond was being excavated in low ground
where a marsh had existed. Richmond is situated just south of the
Bloomington moraine, on an area which is undulating and more or less
morainic. The animal must have lived at some time after the culmination
of the Wisconsin stage.
3. _Greenfield, Hancock County._—In 1893 (Amer. Geologist, vol. XII, p.
73), Joseph Moore mentioned the fact that some remains of _Castoroides_
had been found near Greenfield and that these were in the possession of
Dr. M. M. Adams. In 1900 (Proc. Ind. Acad. Sci. for 1899, p. 171, plates
I, II), Moore presented figures of the skull and made some brief
statements regarding it. At that time the skull had come into the
possession of Earlham College. If restored this skull would have had a
length of 13 inches. Nothing is known as to the exact place where it was
found, but it can not be doubted that the animal lived after the
Wisconsin ice had retreated further north.
4. _Jamestown, Boone County._—In the State Museum at Indianapolis is a
lower jaw of a giant beaver which has all of the molars, but whose
incisors are broken off at the border of the bone. This specimen was
presented by Mr. A. E. Deatley, of Lizton, Hendricks County, who found
it in earth thrown out by a dredging machine, but the exact locality was
not stated. Jamestown is situated on Eel River where it crosses the
Champaign moraine. The geological age of the animal is therefore Late
Wisconsin.
5. _Summitville, Madison County._—In the State Museum at Indianapolis is
an upper right incisor of the giant beaver in its premaxilla, labeled as
presented by Mr. J. F. Cartwright. Nothing more is known of the history
of the specimen.
Summitville is surrounded by plains of Wisconsin drift. It is about 12
miles from the place where was found the fine mounted specimen of
_Elephas primigenius_ now in the American Museum of Natural History, New
York.
6. _Union City, Randolph County._—Here was found the nearly complete
skeleton of _Castoroides ohioensis_ at Earlham College, Richmond,
Indiana. This was secured by Professor Joseph Moore, who described and
figured it. It was discovered on the farm of John M. Turner, about 8
miles nearly east of Winchester. Mr. Turner has informed the writer that
the farm is a part of section 15, township 17, range 1.
The bones occurred in a layer of fine-grained marly silt from 2 to 3
feet thick, overlain by from 3 to 4 feet of dark loose mold abounding in
fragments of shrubby stems and vines in various stages of decay. Under
the silt containing the bones were coarser and finer drift gravels which
formed the bottom of the ditch. In the silts were found fresh-water
gasteropods and bivalve shells. Along the same ditch, within a distance
of 30 rods, other fragments were found which were supposed to indicate 9
individuals of _Castoroides_. As this region is covered by Wisconsin
drift, the animal evidently lived after the Wisconsin ice-sheet had
retired from the Union City moraine, possibly a long time thereafter.
7. _Fairmount, Grant County._—Near Fairmount were found some limb-bones
and other parts (but no skull) of the giant beaver. These were obtained
not far from where the large specimen of _Elephas primigenius_ was
discovered which is mounted in the American Museum of Natural History in
New York. The remains of this _Castoroides_ are in the Field Museum of
Natural History. No details regarding the find have been published. It
was stated that near the bones were parts of trees, as though a dam had
been built there; but this interesting matter appears not to have been
investigated.
The elephant mentioned above was found on the farm of Dora C. Hitt, in
the southeast quarter of section 23, township 23 north, range 8 east.
8. _Carroll County._—In 1884 (14th Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv. Indiana, pt. 2,
p. 37) the State geologist, John Collett, wrote that _Castoroides_ had
been found in this county; but nothing was added to this statement. On
the map the number is placed arbitrarily.
9. _Logansport, Cass County._—In the U. S. National Museum is a fine
skull of _Castoroides_, without lower jaw, which, according to the
newspaper report accompanying it (dated January 30, 1894), was found 2
or 3 miles north of Logansport, by Mr. S. L. McFadin, who sold it to the
National Museum. It lay at a depth of 7 feet on a fine sand, above which
was a foot of solid gravel, then 3 feet of solid clay, and at the top 3
feet of alluvium. According to Leverett and Taylor’s map of the region
(Monogr. U. S. Geol. Surv., vol. LIII, plate VI), this place would be on
the moraine which lies north of the Wabash River, the meeting-place of
the ice-lobes coming from Lake Michigan, Lake Erie, and Saginaw Bay.
10. _Macy, Miami County._—From Mr. C. F. Fite, Denver, Indiana, the
writer received a photograph of a tooth of _Castoroides_, apparently the
lower right incisor. This was found in Allen Township. Mr. Fite gives as
the exact locality section 23, township 29, range 3 east. This would be
not far from Macy. It lies, therefore, on or near the northern border of
the great moraine which extends from Delphi, Indiana, to the
northeastern corner of the State.
11. _Kosciusko County._—As in the case of Cass County, we depend for our
knowledge of the discovery of _Castoroides_ in Kosciusko County on the
statement made by John Collett, in the place there cited.
12. _Grovertown, Starke County._—From Dr. E. S. Riggs, of Field Museum
of Natural History, the information has been received that there is at
that museum a fine skull, with the right half pf the mandible, of a
giant beaver which was found 1.5 miles west of Grovertown, in making an
excavation for the abutment of a bridge, 6 feet below the surface in
township 34 north, range 1 west. This is within the region of the
Pleistocene Lake Kankakee.
ILLINOIS.
(Maps 28, 38.)
1. _Shawneetown, Gallatin County._—In the collection of the Academy of
Natural Science of Philadelphia are a part of one incisor, two molars,
and two petrous bones which were many years ago obtained by a Dr.
Feuchtwanger, from a well at a depth of 40 feet. These were mentioned by
Le Conte in 1852 (Proc. Acad. Phila., vol. VI, p. 53). Leidy has figured
the incisor (Holmes’s “Post-Pliocene Fossils of South Carolina,” 1860,
plate XXII, fig. 5; Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv. Pennsylvania, 1887, plate II,
fig. 10). Leverett (Monogr. U. S. Geol. Surv., vol. XXXVIII, p. 65)
states that at Shawneetown a boring for gas and oil penetrated 112 feet
of alluvial and other deposits before reaching rock. His map (plate VI)
indicates that here the valley of the Ohio is composed of sand and
gravel plains of Wisconsin age. Under the conditions it seems impossible
to form any certain conclusions regarding the geological age of this
specimen. It belongs possibly to the later half of the Pleistocene.
2. _Alton, Madison County._—In the McAdams collection, described on page
338, is a part of a large upper incisor, in two pieces, of a specimen of
_Castoroides_, with McAdams’s Nos. 209, 210, and a small fragment of
another incisor. All three specimens are more or less enveloped in
nodules of hard materials. In 1883 (Trans. St. Louis Acad. Sci., vol.
IV, p. LXXX) McAdams stated that he had seen, both in true and modified
drift, remains of rodents large and small, but one, an extinct beaver,
was of monstrous size.
For conclusions as to the age of the fauna secured by McAdams see page
339.
3. _Charleston, Coles County._—In 1867 (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., p.
97), Leidy briefly described a skull of _Castoroides_, sent to him for
examination by Professor A. H. Worthen. It lacked both zygomatic arches
and the incisor teeth. The length of the skull was 10.5 inches. This
skull had been found by someone while he was plowing in a field near
Charleston. The region about Charleston is covered by the Shelbyville
lobe of the early Wisconsin drift. The animal must have lived at some
time after the deposition of that drift.
4. _Naperville, DuPage County._—H. M. Bannister (Geol. Surv. Illinois,
vol. IV, p. 113) reported a skull and other parts of the skeleton of
_Castoroides_, found by a farmer in a slough not far from Naperville.
The skull went to Colonel Wood’s Museum in Chicago, and it was probably
destroyed in the great fire of 1871. This animal quite certainly lived
after the retirement of the Wisconsin ice-sheet.
SOUTH CAROLINA.
(Map 28.)
1. _Charleston, Charleston County._—In 1860, Dr. Joseph Leidy (Holmes’s
Post-Pl. Foss. South Carolina, p. 114, plate XX, figs. 6–8) recorded the
fact that fragments of the teeth of the giant beaver had been found in
the Pleistocene deposit of Ashley River.
In the Pinckney collection is an upper cheek-tooth, the fourth premolar.
The height of the tooth is 37 mm., the length is 16 mm., the width 11.5
mm. It was found in the vicinity of Charleston.
In the Scanlan collection, the property of Yale University, and made in
the vicinity of Charleston, are five more or less injured teeth. One is
a left upper molar, either the second or the third. The length of the
grinding-surface is 12 mm., the width 13 mm. Two fragments of upper
right incisors are interesting. One of these, 140 mm. long, bears the
oblique excavated surface worn by the lower incisors. Each diameter of
the tooth is 25 mm. The other fragment is 123 mm. long and comes from
the middle of the tooth. The two diameters of this tooth are, as in the
other one, 25 mm. Both of these teeth appear to be more strongly curved
than the teeth of more northern specimens. Also, the striation on the
outer face of the tooth is finer, finally becoming hair-like lines as
the rear face is approached. More of the larger ridges in the front of
the tooth are directed obliquely and terminate along a front groove than
in specimens hitherto observed. It is possible that an undescribed
species is indicated. The two teeth present some differences between
themselves. Another fragment, 103 mm. long, has a diameter of 20 mm. At
the base is seen a part of the pulp-cavity.
GEORGIA.
(Map 28.)
1. _Brunswick, Glynn County._—In a small collection of vertebrate
fossils made during dredging operations at Brunswick not many years ago,
and which now belongs to the Geological Survey of Georgia, Gidley found
a fragment of an incisor tooth of _Castoroides ohioensis_. The
accompanying species will be recorded on page 370. Gidley’s list is
found on page 436 of Bulletin No. 26 of the Geological Survey of
Georgia.
MISSISSIPPI.
(Map 28.)
1. _Natchez, Adams County._—James Hall, in 1846 (Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat.
Hist., vol. II, p. 168; Jour. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. V, p. 380),
announced that remains of this animal had been found in the neighborhood
of Natchez. The exact locality is unknown and likewise the conditions
under which the specimens were discovered. This species is not included
by Leidy in his list of fossil mammals found in Pleistocene deposits in
Mississippi up to 1854 (Wailles, Agri. Geol. Mississippi, p. 196).
A list of the species found in the vicinity of Natchez is presented on
page 392.
TENNESSEE.
(Map 28. Figure 23.)
1. _Memphis, Shelby County._—In 1850, Dr. Jeffries Wyman reported (Proc.
Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. III, p. 281) that a part of a lower jaw of
_Castoroides_ had been found at Memphis. With it were a toe-bone of
_Megalonyx_, a tooth of a young mastodon, and a part of the lower jaw of
a beaver. It was thought that these remains had been buried in the
deposits laid down by Mississippi River. It is to be regretted that the
locality and the height above the river were not more exactly specified.
The specimen of _Castoroides_, a right ramus of the lower jaw, is now in
the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.
ON THE PLEISTOCENE GEOLOGY OF NORTH AMERICA AND ITS RELATION TO ITS
FOSSIL VERTEBRATES.
ONTARIO.
For a knowledge of the Pleistocene of Canada, the student ought first to
read Dr. J. W. Dawson’s “Canadian Ice Age,” published in 1894. In this
will be found references to the earlier literature of the subject. For
the results of more recent studies the reports of the Canadian
Geological Survey are to be consulted, as well as papers published in
the scientific journals. For the more important of these papers the
reader may consult the list published by Dr. H. L. Fairchild in 1918
(Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., vol. XXIX, pp. 229).
To state the matter briefly, one may say that almost everywhere in
Ontario are deposits of glacial drift of Wisconsin age. In a few
localities have been discovered beds which belong to earlier glacial and
interglacial epochs. On the other hand, around Hudson Bay, around the
Gulf of St. Lawrence, along St. Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers, and the Bay
of Fundy are marine deposits, laid down after the Wisconsin ice had
retired from those localities and while the region which had been
occupied by this ice-sheet was depressed so much that the sea could
enter the basins named.
The most interesting locality in Canada for the student of vertebrate
palæontology is doubtless Toronto, because of the presence there of
Pleistocene deposits belonging to more than one stage, and because of
the discovery of several species of extinct vertebrates and of many
mollusks, insects, and plants. For an understanding of the geology of
the region Coleman’s papers must be studied, as well as those of authors
cited by him. On the interglacial deposits three of Coleman’s papers may
be especially cited (Jour. Geol., vol. IX, 1901, pp. 285–310; 10th
Internat. Cong. Geol., 1906, Mexico, pp. 1237–1258; Bull. Geol. Soc.
Amer., vol. XXVI, 1915, pp. 243–254).
According to Coleman’s figure 1 of the first paper cited, the known
interglacial deposits in that region extend from the mouth of Humber
River eastward beyond the mouth of Rouge River, a distance of about 22
miles, and away from the lake a distance of about 8 miles. Deposits have
been found even 14 miles north of Toronto (Coleman, 1915, p. 246).
Coleman’s sketch map of the region, taken from his paper of 1901, is
here reproduced (fig. 3).
According to Coleman (paper of 1915, p. 243) there are known at Toronto
five well-defined sheets of boulder clay, with four sheets of
interglacial sand and clay separating them. So far as the writer knows,
only the lowest of these beds have been described with any
particularity. These lowest beds constitute the Toronto formation, and
it is these which have furnished nearly all the fossil animals and
plants discovered in that region. This Toronto formation is divisible
into two portions, and these have been designated as the Don beds and
the Scarboro beds. They are regarded as having been deposited in the
valley of an ancient river running from Georgian Bay to Scarboro. Of
these the Don beds are the older. Sections of these are found in Toronto
and outside, especially along Don River. They have been laid down
usually on a boulder clay, 1 to 9 feet thick, which itself reposes on
Hudson River shales. At one point along the Don an interglacial river
had cut through both the boulder clay and the shale to a depth of 16
feet. The Don deposits consist of varying layers of sands, gravels, and
clays. At one point the section obtained amounted to about 27 feet; but
this, combined with another, made up about 44 feet. At one place trunks,
12 or 15 feet long, of trees have been found, which were flattened into
the surface of the boulder till; also shells of unios, which are
embedded in clay close to the boulder till.
[Illustration:
FIG. 3.—Region about Toronto, Ontario, showing location of Toronto and
Scarboro Heights Pleistocene beds. From Coleman.
]
In 1913 (Ontario Bur. Mines. Guide Book No. 6, pp. 15–18), Professor
Coleman presented a list of the species found in the Don beds. Of the
plants 32 species of trees had been secured, among them the pawpaw, the
red cedar, and the osage orange; 41 species of fresh-water mollusks were
listed, of which 12 were Unionidæ.
As bearing on the climate, it may be said that there are 12 species of
the genus _Unio_ listed, of which 4 species are now known only from
localities south of the St. Lawrence drainage; while 3 other species
live in Lake Erie, but not in Lake Ontario. The plants are mostly trees;
and several species, as the osage orange and the pawpaw, are now found
only considerably farther south. One species of maple no longer exists.
Penhallow gave it as his opinion that the flora points conclusively to
the existence of climatic conditions of a character more nearly like
that of the middle United States to-day. The unios now missing from that
region give evidence to the same fact. For these reasons the Don
deposits are spoken of as the warm-climate beds.
The Scarboro beds are finely displayed at Scarboro heights, a few miles
east of Toronto. The thickness of the clay here amounts to about 94
feet. In these deposits have been found possibly mammoth or mastodon and
caribou, but there is some uncertainty about these. Only 14 species of
plants have been secured and these are trees; but apparently no mollusks
have been reported. As an offset there are great numbers of beetles. Of
these there have been described 72 species, and all are extinct except
2.
The trees, according to Penhallow, indicate a climate somewhat cooler
than that now prevailing in that region. The same conclusion was reached
by Scudder from his study of the insects. In his paper of 1901, Coleman
took the view that the Toronto formation had been laid down in the
interval between the Iowan and the Wisconsin glacial stages, that is,
during what is now known as the Peorian. In the address of 1906, page
44, he appears to have been inclined to accept Leverett’s view that at
least the Don beds belonged to the Sangamon stage. By 1915 (paper cited,
p. 252) he had about concluded that the Toronto beds were as old as the
Aftonian stage.