205–218), accounted for the deposits and fossil animals and plants found
at Toronto in a different way. At a certain time in the Pleistocene the
region about Toronto was occupied by some species of animals and plants
now found only considerably further south. An ice-sheet from the
Keewatin center extended thither and laid down the Don beds. Later the
Labrador glacier pushed into that region and deposited the Scarboro
beds. According to this view the whole succession of events would be
much shortened.
The writer is disposed to accept Leverett’s estimate of the geological
position of the interglacial beds at Toronto. The presence there of
_Elephas primigenius_, _Mammut americanum_, and the probable _Ursus
americanus_ hardly counts in the determination of the geological age,
for all these animals appear to have continued on from at least the
Aftonian interglacial to the close of the Wisconsin. There are no
specimens that show that either _Rangifer_ or _Cervalces_ existed during
the Aftonian, although one can hardly doubt that they did then exist. In
order to show that the Toronto formation belongs to the Aftonian, it
would be necessary to produce satisfactory stratigraphical evidence or
to find there genera and species of mammals which characterize the
Aftonian, such as camels, _Elephas imperator_, and those horses which
belong to the early Pleistocene. If the deposits belong to the Sangamon
stage, such horses as _Equus complicatus_ and _E. leidyi_ ought in time
to be discovered there.
Coleman has discussed the interglacial beds that occur elsewhere in
Canada (10th Internat. Geol. Congr. 1906, Mexico, pp. 1237–1258; Bull.
Geol. Soc. Amer., vol. XXVI, 1915, pp. 243–254). He refers to Chalmers’s
account of interglacial deposits along Lake Erie; but so far as the
writer has been able to determine, most of the deposits referred to are
of Late Wisconsin age. However, as he says, Spencer found interglacial
materials near Niagara Falls. Other beds have been discovered along
Moose River, south of James Bay; but their geological position has not
been definitely determined, and the fossils discovered there, mostly
proboscideans, are not referred with certainty to the interglacial
deposits.
Most of the vertebrate fossils found in Ontario, excepting many of those
found at Toronto, belong to the Late Wisconsin stage; and in studying
their geological relations one must, as in the States of New York, Ohio,
Indiana, and Michigan, take into consideration the history of the Great
Lakes after the Wisconsin ice-sheet began to retire. According to
Leverett and Taylor’s maps (Monogr. LIII, U. S. Geol. Surv., plate XIV),
as early as the time when the glacial ice had just begun to withdraw
from Lakes Michigan and Erie, a considerable area of land had become
cleared of ice in the peninsula bounded by Georgian Bay, Lakes Huron,
Erie, and Ontario. We can hardly suppose, however, that any mastodons or
any elephants, except possibly _Elephas primigenius_, could have made
their way to that area. Even the last-mentioned species would have had
to travel over many miles of glacial ice. Conditions were hardly more
favorable when Lake Whittlesey had come into existence (op. cit., plate
XVI). At a later stage (op. cit., plate XVII) the ice-free parts of the
peninsula could have been reached only by crossing the lakes or over
wide stretches of glacier. It is possible that some of the mastodons and
elephants that have been found had crossed over into Ontario at about
the stage represented by plate XIX of the work cited, but it is more
probable that they lived there at a later time.
Brief mention is here made of the fossil vertebrates found in Ontario
and their localities. More detailed statements will be found on the
pages cited.
Beginning in the west, a mastodon has been found at Blythewood, Essex
County (p. 45). In Elgin County a mastodon has been met with at St.
Thomas (p. 45), and a mastodon (p. 45) and an undetermined species of
elephant at Highgate (p. 45). A little farther back from the lake, at
London, Middlesex County, has been found a mastodon (p. 45). At Marburg,
not far from the shore of Lake Erie, Dr. H. M. Ami exhumed a mastodon
(p. 45). The writer has not learned how this locality is related to the
ancient beaches. At Dunnville, Haldimand County, a mastodon has been
secured (p. 46). It could hardly have lived there before the lake had
assumed nearly its present level. The same remark will apply to the time
when the mastodon (p. 46), _Elephas columbi_ (p. 147), and possibly _E.
primigenius_ (p. 166) lived at St. Catharines. From Hamilton, at the
extreme western end of Lake Ontario, have been described remains of
_Elephas columbi_ (p. 147), _E._ sp. indet. (p. 166), elk, _Cervus
canadensis_ (p. 235), and the beaver. _Elephas primigenius_ has been
found at Toronto, (p. 130); also _Cervalces_, a bison (p. 256), and a
reindeer (p. 244). The same elephant has been discovered at Amaranth, in
Dufferin County (p. 130). The elk, _Cervus canadensis_, has been
reported from Strathroy, Middlesex County, and Kingston, Frontenac
County (p. 235). At Smith’s Falls, Lanark County, the humpback whale,
_Megaptera boöps_, has been discovered (p. 17). White whales,
_Delphinapterus leucas_ and _D. vermontanus_, have been found at
Pakenham, Lanark County (p. 17), at Cornwall, Stormont County (p. 18),
Nepean Township (p. 17), Ottawa East, Carleton County, and Williamston,
Glengarry County (p. 18). At Ottawa has been discovered an assemblage of
species, as listed on page 287.
The geology of the Hamilton locality has been described by Logan (Geol.
Canada, 1863, p. 914), by Spencer (Canad. Naturalist, vol. X, 1883, pp.
222–230, 306–308), and by Coleman (Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., vol. XV,
1904, p. 351). The remains mentioned were found in deposits forming what
is called Burlington Heights. Here Dundas Valley opens into the extreme
western end of Lake Ontario. The valley is about a half mile wide.
Across this had been formed a bar, interrupted only at its northern end,
with a height of 108 feet above the level of the lake and a width
varying from a few hundred yards to less than a half mile. Its height is
almost that of the Iroquois beach found on the south shore of the lake
and continuing on the northern shore. Many years ago a canal was cut
through the narrowest part of the bar, and it was in the construction of
this that the elephant (p. 166), elk (p. 235), and beaver bones were
found. It is evident that the bones were deposited there while the bar
was being built and at a time when it lacked 38 feet of being as high as
it now is. The elephant jaw is in good condition, and this indicates
that the animal died near the spot.
Coleman (op. cit., p. 352) stated that afterwards a railroad cut had
been made across the southern end of the bar, exposing 30 feet of coarse
stratified gravel, followed below by 2 feet of brown clay (evidently an
old soil) and 8 feet of blue till. In the old soil were found quantities
of decayed wood, as well as bones of mammoth and other animals. About a
mile farther west, pits were opened for clay, sand, and gravel. Coleman
gives the following geological section at this place. The column at the
right gives the heights above the lake level.
_feet._ _feet._
Clay making red brick 6 78
Gravel 30 72
White sand 5 42
Hard pan 4 37
White sand with mammoth tusks and bones 33
Covered to level of the bay 0
The mammoth tusks and bones were not water-worn. It will be observed
that they were found 83 feet below the top of the Iroquois beach (116
feet above the present lake), while the jaw was only about 45 feet below
the beach. Both Coleman, as cited, and Fairchild (Bull. Geol. Soc.
Amer., vol. XXVII, p. 247) regard the formation of the bar at Hamilton
as showing that during Iroquois times the lake became flooded to a
height of about 82 feet.
Besides the interglacial species found at Toronto, which have already
been mentioned, there may be noted a tooth of _Elephas primigenius_ (p.
130), a cast of which was reported by Winchell. Whether this was derived
from interglacial or late Wisconsin beds is not known. Coleman, as
elsewhere cited, reported the finding of remains of one of the elephants
on the Iroquois beach. On the same beach have been collected antlers of
reindeer (p. 244). These animals must have lived there not earlier than
the time when that beach was forming, perhaps later.
[Illustration:
FIG. 4.—Eastern Ontario, showing limit of fresh-water beaches and
marine fossils. Redrawn from Coleman.
]
In a buried gorge extending in a northwestern direction from the
whirlpool at Niagara to the Niagara escarpment, Dr. J. W. Spencer (Bull.
Geol. Amer., vol. XXI, p. 433) has discovered what he regards as
deposits equivalent to the Toronto formation, while older glacial and
interglacial beds are found below and more recent ones above. No fossils
were met with except wood. At Amaranth have been secured considerable
parts of a skeleton of _Elephas primigenius_ (p. 130). This elephant
must have existed rather late in the Wisconsin stage. About Kingston in
Frontenac County, at two places, have been secured remains of the elk
(p. 235), but lack of details as to places and conditions precludes
certainty as to their geological age. The fact that they were found in
shell marl is favorable to the idea that they belonged to the
Pleistocene. Here may be mentioned again the bison horn of uncertain
geological age which was found on the north shore of Nipissing Lake (p.
266). In Algoma County, on the banks of Moose River, was found a part of
a skull of a mastodon, but there is uncertainty whether it had been
buried in interglacial deposits or in marine Champlain beds. The region
in the extreme eastern end of Ontario is interesting because it
furnishes a considerable fauna belonging to the Champlain stage. During
the last glacial stage the region on which the Wisconsin ice-sheet was
resting became depressed to such an extent that when this ice retreated
beyond the St. Lawrence River, marine waters occupied the basin nearly
to the eastern end of Lake Ontario and Ottawa River as far as Lake
Coulonge. Coleman’s figure of the region (Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., vol.
XII, pp. 129–146, fig. 1) is here reproduced (fig. 4) to show the
western limits of the marine waters, so far as known, and the
corresponding fresh-water beach along the north shore of Lake Ontario.
Figure 5 from Coleman shows how the Champlain Sea was limited on the
south. Marine fossils, especially mollusks, have been found along the
upper St. Lawrence as far as Brockville, Quebec, and on the opposite
side of the river, in New York. On Coleman’s map the present elevations
of the old beaches at important localities are marked, that at Ottawa
having an elevation of 450 feet and at Coulonge 370 feet. According to
Johnston, who has described the Pleistocene geology in the vicinity of
Ottawa (Mem. 101, Canad. Dept. Mines, 1917), there is a point about 8
miles northwest of the city where a marine terrace is found at a height
of 690 feet above sea-level. The marine beds at Ottawa are divided into
the Leda clays at the base and Saxicava sands above. The former have a
maximum thickness of about 200 feet, the Saxicava sands, a thickness of
about 40 feet. The fossils occur mostly in the Leda clays. In 1897, Dr.
H. M. Ami (Ottawa Naturalist, vol. XI, pp. 20–26), and again in 1901
(Geol. Surv. Ann. Rep., XII, G, pp. 51–56), published lists of the
fossils found in the Ottawa Valley, nearly all of them in the vicinity
of Ottawa. There were listed 26 species of plants, about 13 species of
marine mollusks, and the following vertebrates:
Mallotus villosus, capelin.
Cyclopterus lumpus, lump-sucker.
Osmerus mordax, smelt.
Artediellus atlanticus (Cottus uncinatus), sculpin.
Gasterosteus aculeatus, stickleback.
Phoca vitulina, common seal (p. 22).
Phoca grœnlandica, Greenland seal (p. 23).
Tamias striatus, chipmunk.
[Illustration:
FIG. 5.—South shore-line of ancient Champlain sea. Redrawn from
Coleman.
]
The aquatic forms are all species existing in the Gulf of St. Lawrence
and along the northern Atlantic coast. The chipmunk lives at Ottawa.
Specimens of feathers of birds also have been found in nodules, but the
species have not been determined. The remains of the chipmunk were
probably washed in by some fresh-water stream.
According to Johnston’s paper just cited, there are deposits of glacial
drift underlying the marine Champlain beds, but they have furnished no
fossils. The marine deposits extend up the Ottawa Valley at least as far
as Coulonge Lake, and here has been found _Mallotus villosus_. At
Welshe’s, 3 miles north of Smith’s Falls, Lanark County, have been found
some remains of the humpback whale, _Megaptera boöps_ (Dawson, Amer.
Jour. Sci., vol. XXV, 1883, p. 200). It was met with (p. 17) at an
elevation of 440 feet above present sea-level. It appears to have been
left there during the time when the Saxacava sands and gravels were
being laid down (Coleman, Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., vol. XII, p. 133).
QUEBEC.
The Pleistocene of Quebec was described by Logan in 1863 (Geol. Canada,
pp. 917–926) and by J. W. Dawson, 1894, in his “Canadian Ice Age.”
Dawson divided the epoch, as represented in Canada, into the early
Pleistocene, the mid-Pleistocene, and the later Pleistocene. He did not
accept the glacial theory as it is now understood, admitting only great
local glaciers. His early Pleistocene deposits embraced the great bulk
of the boulder clays. His mid-Pleistocene represents an interglacial
period, during which were deposited the marine Leda clays, Saxicava
sands, and their fresh-water equivalents. The climate was supposed to be
milder than at present. During the later Pleistocene there was to some
extent a recurrence of local glaciation and of deposition of boulder
clay. This stage was followed, according to Dawson, by the Early Modern,
which he regarded as the age of the mammoth and mastodon.
Mr. J. Stansfield has described with some detail the Pleistocene and
Recent deposits of the island of Montreal (Mem. 73, Geol. Surv. Canada,
1915). The boulder clay is of variable thickness and does not appear to
be divisible into beds of different epochs. The Leda and Saxicava
deposits are present. When the latter were laid down the region about
Montreal was depressed about 600 feet below its present elevation. This
has been confirmed by Goldthwait (Summary Rep. for 1913, p. 211). Later
it began to rise; and Stansfield thinks that when the elevation had
reached about 100 feet less than that of the present the water of the
St. Lawrence at that point had become fresh. He found some apparent
evidences of a recurrence of glaciation after the Champlain stage, but,
on the whole, left the question undecided. He published a list of about
85 species of marine invertebrate fossils, collected from the Leda clay
about Montreal, and 22 species obtained from the Saxicava sands. Besides
the invertebrates secured from the Leda clays at that place, there are
two vertebrates, _Phoca grœnlandica_ (p. 22) and _Delphinapterus
leucas_, or _D. vermontana_ (p. 18). At Rivière du Loup, in Temiscouata
County, whale remains were reported in 1894 (p. 18), which were thought
to belong to _Delphinapterus leucas_. At Metis, Rimouski County, a
jawbone of a whale has been discovered in the shelly marl of the lower
terrace (p. 19); whether or not it belonged to _Megaptera boöps_ is not
certain. The specimen of the former species was described by Leidy in
1856.
According to Logan’s report of 1863 (Geol. Canada, p. 920), the single
bone was found in a brickyard. At the same place was found some vertebræ
of the whale. At Bic, Rimouski County, has been found a nearly complete
skeleton of a walrus, at an elevation of more than 100 feet (p. 21).
Dawson (Canadian Record Sci., 1895, vol. VI, p. 352) described a nearly
complete skeleton of the whale which had been found at Montreal in the
Leda clay, 22 feet below the surface. This Leda clay was supposed by
Dawson to have been deposited at a depth of from 50 to 80 fathoms, which
depth, he said, corresponded approximately to the marine shore-lines at
Montreal at an elevation of about 470 feet above sea-level, and to the
sea-beach at Smith’s Falls, above referred to. Hence at the time that
the whale was buried the mountain at Montreal was only a rocky islet in
the sea which prevailed then over the region from the Laurentian hills
on the north to the highlands of Quebec, south of the St. Lawrence.
At Tétreauville, in Ottawa County, on Ottawa River, have been found some
bones, supposed to belong to the harbor seal, _Phoca vitulina_.
NEW BRUNSWICK, NOVA SCOTIA, AND CAPE BRETON ISLAND.
All three of these regions were involved in the glaciation of the
Wisconsin stage. According to Goldthwait (Summary Rep. for 1913, pp.
244–250), New Brunswick was the center from which the ice flowed out
over the other two lands. From this center it moved southward over the
western end of Nova Scotia, more and more southeastward over the rest of
the peninsula, while over Cape Breton Island the direction was eastward
and northeastward. Some indications were observed of an earlier
glaciation. As regards post-glacial submergence, Goldthwait found that
at St. John, New Brunswick, this had amounted to about 190 feet, while
on Cape Breton Island no signs of any submergence were found. Robert
Chalmers had arrived at similar conclusions; and these agree well with
the theoretical isobases drawn by Taylor for that region (Monogr. U. S.
Geol. Surv. LIII, 1915, p. 503). G. F. Matthew in 1879 (Geol. Surv.
Canada, Rep. for 1877–78, EE, pp. 1–36) described the geology of
southern New Brunswick. Few fossil vertebrates of Pleistocene age have
been discovered in these countries. On Cape Breton Island mastodon
remains have been found in two places, Middle River and Baddeck (p. 46).
As long ago as 1874 remains supposed to belong to _Delphinapterus_ were
found near the mouth of the Jaquet River, in the northernmost part of
New Brunswick; but Professor G. H. Perkins has shown that the animal was
probably the narwhal, _Monodon monoceros_. The discovery is discussed
here on page 19. At the southern extremity of New Brunswick, along
Mace’s Bay, Charlotte County, a jaw supposed to belong to a species of
_Delphinapterus_ was found, which had been buried in the Leda clay (p.
19). Near Fairville, at the mouth of St. John River, there has been
discovered some bones of the seal _Phoca grœnlandica_ (p. 21). In the
Academy of Sciences at Philadelphia is a skull of a walrus (p. 21) found
apparently in the water near Sable Island about 50 years ago. It is not
certain that it is a Pleistocene fossil.
NEW ENGLAND.
Inasmuch as relatively few vertebrates belonging to the Pleistocene have
been discovered in the New England States, it will not be necessary to
enter into details regarding the geology of the glacial period in this
region. Nevertheless, the subject is one of great interest and one which
has engaged the attention of many geologists. For those who wish to
enter on the study, the writer recommends first a paper written in 1906
(Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., vol. XVIII, pp. 505–556) by Frederick G. Clapp,
entitled “Complexity of the Glacial Period in Northeastern New England,”
which gives a brief history of the development of the idea that in the
region mentioned there are evidences of more than one glacial and of
more than one interglacial stage. There are also citations of the
principal papers written on the subject. Among the writers cited are
Shaler, Woodworth, Fuller, Upham, Stone, and Tarr. Clapp concluded that
New England had been invaded by at least three ice-sheets and that these
invasions had been separated by two interglacial intervals of long
duration. On account of the greater thickness of the drift and because
of fewer favorable exposures, due to the rocky nature of the coast and
other causes, many difficulties are encountered in studying the
deposits. He regarded absolute correlations as not yet possible. The
last glaciation he accepted as corresponding closely with the Wisconsin,
as displayed in States further west. What is known as Montauk drift,
forming a part of the Gay Head interval of Woodworth, appeared to Clapp
to correspond possibly to the Illinoian. Still older drifts would seem
to have their place nearer the pre-Kansan (Nebraskan) than to the
Kansan. What have been called “Leda clays” are found from Boston north
into the St. Lawrence Valley. Clapp divides them into the “high-level”
and the “low-level” clays. The former are the older and regarded as
being about the equivalent to the Iowan stage. The “low-level clays” are
referred to the Wisconsin stage. Another body of clays named by Fuller
(Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., vol. XVI, p. 375) the Gardiner clays, from
their type locality, Gardiner Island, near the east end of Long Island,
lies beneath the Montauk till and has been referred by Fuller to the
Yarmouth interglacial.
In his paper cited Clapp presents (pp. 520–523) a list of the fossils,
mostly mollusks, which have been collected in the Pleistocene deposits
from New Brunswick to New York.
Along the New England coast are evidences of uplift which followed the
retirement of the Wisconsin ice. Katz (Jour. Washington Acad. Sci., vol.
VIII, 1918, p. 410) reported elevations of 155 feet at Stratham, New
Hampshire, and 300 feet at Pawnal, Maine. Fairchild (Bull. Geol. Soc.
Amer., vol. XXIX, p. 214) records the elevations at various localities
in Maine.
A brief interesting account of the Pleistocene epoch as recorded in
Massachusetts and Rhode Island may be found in an article by B. K.
Emerson (Bull. U. S. Geol. Surv., No. 597, pp. 134–149). It deals in
part with the geology of the valley of the Connecticut River.
Goldthwait (Appalachia, vol. XIII, pp. 1–23) and Foshay (Amer. Jour.
Sci., ser. 4, vol. XXXVIII, pp. 345–348) have found evidences of an
early Pleistocene glaciation in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
Vermont is interesting especially on account of the Pleistocene history
of Lake Champlain. This history has been recently discussed by Professor
H. L. Fairchild (Rep. State Geologist Vermont, vol. X, 1916, pp. 1–41,
with maps and views), who presents (pp. 40–411) a list, 37 in number, of
the more important papers relating to the subject.