Creek in Butler County. The statements regarding the finding of elephant
remains on French Creek near Meadville are vague and valueless (p. 168).
Some remains of _Elephas columbi_ have been found at Tryonville, at a
depth of 7 feet (p. 150). The town is on the Wisconsin moraine and the
elephant probably belongs to the Late Wisconsin.
Nearly a hundred years ago a tooth of _Elephas primigenius_ was reported
from a place in Erie County, called Beaverdam (p. 133). From Mr. Clyde
C. Hill, civil engineer, Northeast, Erie County, the information is
received that Beaverdam is a cross-roads hamlet about 23 miles south of
the lake, near the prolongation of the western New York boundary line.
This is within the area covered by Wisconsin drift, and it is pretty
certain that the animal lived there after or near the close of the
Wisconsin stage.
Just west of Erie a mastodon tooth has been found along Chase Creek (p.
70). Unless there are some unrecognized pre-Wisconsin deposits along
this creek, the animal must have lived there at a time after the lake
had retired to about its present limits. This would be near the very
close of the Pleistocene epoch. The same conclusion must be arrived at
from a study of the proboscidean remains (supposed to be those of an
elephant) found at Girard.
Brief mention is made here of finds of fossil vertebrates in
Pennsylvania which have not yet been mentioned; also, the localities are
given where they are found, and citations of the pages where fuller
descriptions are furnished:
A horse has been reported from Rutherford, Dauphin County (p. 185), and
a peccary, _Platygonus vetus_ (p. 213), from Milroy, Mifflin County.
Mastodons have been reported from Tunkhannock, Wyoming County; Berwick,
Columbia County; Reading, Berks County; Jackson Township, York County;
near Reedsville, Mifflin County; Chambersburg, Franklin County, and
Bedford, Bedford County (see pp. 68, 69). _Elephas primigenius_ has been
met with at Brookfield, Tioga County (p. 133); and somewhere about
Chadd’s Ford, in Chester or Delaware County (p. 133).
OHIO.
(Maps 35, 36.)
The State of Ohio is partly glaciated, partly not. The unglaciated
portion forms the southeastern border and constitutes close to 28 per
cent of the whole surface. The glaciated area is mostly covered by the
Wisconsin drift, which makes up 60 per cent of the whole surface. The
remainder is covered by that part of the Illinoian drift-sheet which
projects beyond the edge of the Wisconsin. This occupies about 12 per
cent of the surface of the State. The unglaciated area contains
Pleistocene deposits along the streams, especially along Ohio,
Muskingum, Hocking, and Scioto Rivers. Probably the greater part of the
materials forming these deposits were brought down the rivers which
headed at the foot of the Illinoian and Wisconsin glacial ice-sheets.
However, all that part of the country which was not covered by glacial
ice was acted on by atmospheric agencies and suffered erosion. Hence
abundant materials of non-glacial origin were swept down those
tributaries of the Ohio which had their sources in the Alleghany region
and down those which flowed through the unglaciated part of the State.
Much of these materials was deposited along the banks of these streams
and mingled with the débris from the glacial ice-sheet. Doubtless such
deposits were being made during the whole Pleistocene epoch and were
mostly swept away; or they may have been covered up by subsequent
deposits; or the deposits of one stage may in many cases not be
distinguishable from those of other stages. A perusal of chapter V of
Leverett’s monograph of 1902 (Monogr. U. S. Geol. Surv., vol. XLI, 1902,
pp. 228–252) and of the papers there cited, also of others published
since that time, will impress the reader with the fact that an old
drift, probably of Kansan or pre-Kansan age, has left traces of itself
in Ohio just outside of the terminal moraine of the Wisconsin drift.
This is found especially in Columbiana County; but, according to Wright
(2d Geol. Surv. Pennsylvania, Z, p. 207) it extends as far westward as
Canton, Stark County.
It is shown in Leverett’s paper that the streams, especially the larger
ones, of southwestern New York, western Pennsylvania, and eastern Ohio
had, at some time preceding that of this old drift, been deeply
excavated into the underlying rocks, and that these ancient channels had
become filled by the outwash from the older drift. Furthermore, terraces
composed of this drift are now found along rivers of the region
mentioned, at heights varying from 150 to as much as 500 feet above the
present streams. Those old, deeply excavated valleys may therefore have
once been filled to the highest terraces and since that time have been
re-excavated to the level of the present streams. The ancient rocky
floors in many cases lie now from a few to some hundreds of feet below
the beds of the existing rivers. It is easily possible that the bones
and teeth of early Pleistocene animals may have been buried in such
valley fillings and such terrace deposits. Again, remains of such
vertebrates may have been buried beneath the glacial “fringe” that has
been mentioned. In such cases it may be impossible for one who is not a
glaciologist, perhaps not even for him, to determine the real age of the
fossils. It is, therefore, of the utmost importance that a record be
kept of the exact spot where the fossil was found, so that at some
future time the geology of the locality may be studied by a competent
person. Naturally, other information, as that relating to the kind of
deposit, depth of burial, elevation of place of burial, and the like, is
valuable.
A discussion of the Illinoian drift-sheet, including that part found in
Ohio, forms chapter VI of Leverett’s work of 1902 (Monogr. cit., pp.
253–291). As shown by his plate II, Illinoian drift covers a small area
in the southwestern corner of the State, along Ohio River; then leaving
the river and running first in a northeasterly direction, then directly
north, it forms a narrow strip outside the border of the Wisconsin as
far north as Richland and Holmes Counties. If it extends further east
than this, it is concealed beneath the Wisconsin. It is to be expected
that Illinoian drift will be discovered here and there in the greater
part of the State beneath the Wisconsin where the latter shall have been
penetrated in digging wells, in borings, and where streams have cut down
through the later drift-sheet. In such places it will be possible to
find remains of animals and plants buried in interglacial deposits laid
down before the Wisconsin stage; that is, in either Sangamon or Peorian
or even more remote times. On page 269 of the work just quoted, Leverett
mentions a case near Lancaster, Fairfield County, where a black mucky
soil was found between the Wisconsin and the Illinoian drifts. On page
273 of the same work is mentioned the occurrence of logs and pieces of
wood at Bethel, Clermont County, in a gravel-bed beneath the Illinoian
drift. This might be interpreted as indicating a deposit belonging to
the earliest part of the Illinoian or to the Yarmouth.
The general aspects of the Illinoian drift are described by Leverett on
his pages 270 to 285.
Deposits of Illinoian age may occur beyond the border of the ice-laid
Illinoian drift and even beyond the Wisconsin as the result of outwash.
Leverett (op. cit., p. 285) mentions the occurrence of what appears to
be an Illinoian terrace along Sandy Creek, near Waynesburg, Stark
County, at 70 feet above the stream, while the Wisconsin terrace is
hardly 40 feet above the creek. High-level terraces are found along
Licking and Muskingum Rivers from Hanover, Licking County, to
McConnellsville in Morgan County, and are thought to be possibly of
Illinoian age, while lower ones belong to the Wisconsin. Illinoian
gravels and cobble are likewise met with along Hocking River (Leverett,
op. cit., p. 288); also along the Scioto from Chillicothe nearly to its
mouth. On lower-level terraces other deposits of Wisconsin age are to be
looked for. Again it is seen how important it is that accurate
information should be sought regarding the exact spot of interment of
any vertebrate remains, as well as the elevation, the depth, and kind of
materials passed through.
Map 35 has been prepared to show the distribution of the Wisconsin and
Illinoian drift-sheets in Ohio. The driftless area, shown without
shading of any kind, occupies the southeastern side of the State and
forms a broad tract somewhat parallel with Ohio River. The Illinoian
belt lies between this driftless area and the Wisconsin. Naturally it
passes beneath the Wisconsin drift and probably underlies most of it. A
part of the map is shaded by horizontal lines in order to show the
position and extent of former Lake Maumee. This lake was an early
predecessor of Lake Erie and emptied into Wabash River. The moraines
laid down by the Wisconsin ice on its gradual withdrawal from the State
are indicated by the stippled areas and by the letters at the sides of
the map. Most of the names applied to these moraines in Ohio differ from
the parts of the same moraines in Indiana. The Germantown, Eaton, and
Englewood correspond to the Bloomington of Indiana; the Sidney to the
Union City; the Loramie to the Salamanie; the Celina to the Wabash; and
the Lima to the Fort Wayne.
Map 36 shows the localities where Pleistocene mammals have been
discovered in the State and the relation of these localities to the
drift-sheets and the moraines.
It is to be supposed that any animal whose remains are found in deposits
overlying the Wisconsin drift lived there after the retreat of the
ice-sheet from that locality. Any mastodon (maps 5, 7) that has been
discovered within the area covered by the old Lake Maumee probably lived
there after that lake had subsided. However, it might be possible to
find along rivers, or deep cuts along railroads, animals that had lived
there during Sangamon times; but this may be supposed to occur rarely.
Mastodons, Nos. 34, 37, and 39 of map 7, probably lived and died after
later Lake Warren had shrunken into Lake Erie.
Most of the fossil vertebrates that have been found in Ohio belong to
the Late Wisconsin; that is, they lived in their respective localities
after the glacial ice had retired from those localities. A few fossils
may be credited to an interglacial stage, Sangamon or Peorian, which
intervened between the Illinoian and the Wisconsin. Inasmuch as in the
area occupied by the Illinoian drift this deposit may be cut through by
rivers or railroads, it is possible that pre-Illinoian fossils might be
discovered.
A tooth of _Elephas primigenius_ has been found at Waverly, Pike County,
on Scioto River, as recorded on page 134. Along that river there are
deposits of gravel and sand which were derived apparently from Illinoian
drift, while below these Illinoian deposits is a Wisconsin terrace. The
tooth above mentioned appears to have been found in a gravel-pit of the
Norfolk and Western Railroad about the year 1900. The writer has not
been able to secure any information as to the elevation of the pit. The
elephant remains observed by Whittlesey along Scioto River, as mentioned
on page 169, were probably buried in the Wisconsin terrace. A mastodon
has been found in Pike County (p. 70), but the more exact locality is
not recorded.
An important but apparently now lost and therefore indeterminable
specimen of elephant is that to which was given the name _Elephas
jacksoni_, described on page 168. It was found in the northwestern
corner of Jackson County, on Little Salt Creek, probably a short time
before 1838. The probability is that it was found in Wisconsin deposits,
but its age is possibly greater. According to Leverett (op. cit., pp.
120, 121, 289), there are in this valley deposits which were probably
laid down during the Illinoian stage. An elephant skeleton is reported
to have been dug up many years ago in the village of Beverly, Washington
County (p. 169), on Muskingum River. Leverett (Monogr. XLI, p. 157)
states that glacial deposits belonging probably to the Wisconsin stage
are found here at a height of 119 feet above the river. Inasmuch as the
greater part of the village is below this level, the elephant probably
belongs to Wisconsin time.
Further up the Muskingum, at or near Duncan Falls, there was found about
1857 a tooth of _Elephas primigenius_ (p. 135). The animal probably
lived and died there at a time when the Wisconsin glacier was not far
away. Other remains of the same species have been described from
Zanesville. The bed which contained these is said to be at a height of
37 feet above the river and 20 feet from the natural surface of the
ground. Inasmuch as drift outwash, believed to be of Wisconsin age, is
built up here to a height of 100 feet above the river (Leverett, op.
cit., p. 157), it is wholly probable that the elephant, like the one
just described, lived in the vicinity of the Wisconsin ice-front. At
Nashport have been discovered in swampy ground remains of _Castoroides_
(p. 273) and of _Mammut_ (p. 70). Although there is at Hanover, Licking
County, across Licking River, a great dam of supposed Illinoian age and
probably more or less hidden deposits of the same age along the river,
the giant beaver and the mastodon just mentioned may not be older than
the Wisconsin. Nevertheless, as they were found lying on gravel at a
depth of 14 feet, they may have been buried there during the Sangamon
stage. Along the eastern border of the State, in Columbiana County, on
Salt Creek, in the southwestern part of the county, there was found,
about 1845, a tooth of a horse (p. 186). It was discovered while a canal
was being excavated and at a depth not to exceed 12 or 15 feet. The
locality is apparently some miles south of the Wisconsin moraine. The
animal lived there evidently at some time preceding the Wisconsin drift
stage, possibly after the Illinoian, but quite as likely before the
Illinoian. Not far away from where the horse was discovered, apparently
on Little Yellow Creek, and probably not far from New Salisbury, there
was found, about 1850, a fragment of the lower jaw of a tapir (p. 203).
It probably lived at about the same time that the horse did. Near
Millport a tooth, referred to _Elephas primigenius_, has been found (p.
135). The locality is beyond the Wisconsin moraine, but it is impossible
to determine whether the beast lived there early or late in the
Pleistocene.
At this point may be mentioned the discovery of remains of a peccary,
supposed to be _Mylohyus nasutus_ (p. 215), and of _Mammut americanum_
(p. 70) in the southern edge of Lisbon, Columbiana County, apparently
along Middle Fork of Little Beaver River. This locality is on the border
of the Wisconsin drift-sheet, and the peccary and the mastodon might
well have lived there with the horse and the tapir mentioned above.
Not many localities within the area of the Illinoian drift in Ohio have
furnished vertebrate fossils.
Lyell in 1843, as stated on page 71, reported that teeth of mastodons
and of elephants had been found on the Cincinnati side of the river, on
the high terraces.
From Professor N. M. Fenneman the writer learns that Lyell’s reference
could hardly apply to any other locality than Terrace Park or Milford.
Here are found some fragments of an Illinoian terrace that would hardly
be spoken of casually as such, while the Wisconsin deposit is present as
an upper and a lower terrace.
In Hyde Park, as detailed on page 71, considerable parts of a mastodon
and some remains of a horse (p. 185), probably _Equus complicatus_, have
been discovered. The age of these remains certainly antedates that of
the Wisconsin; and it is not improbable that the excavation was carried
through the Illinoian drift into an older and probably interglacial
deposit. Professor Fenneman writes that this area is only thinly covered
by Illinoian drift and is also far beyond the limits of the Wisconsin
outwash.
The occurrence of _Bison latifrons_ near Fincastle, in Brown County (p.
257), must be noted. The fine pair of horn-cores now in the Cincinnati
Society of Natural History may have been buried in deposits of Sangamon
age. It is not, however, impossible that they were in an interglacial
bed below the Illinoian drift.
On page 135 there has been given an account of the finding of a skull of
_Elephas primigenius_, somewhat more than a mile east of New Burlington.
The locality is treated in proper detail in N. M. Fenneman’s paper
entitled “Geology of Cincinnati and Vicinity” (Bull. 19, Geol. Surv.
Ohio, p. 158). According to this account the skull was buried in a
lacustrine silt laid down probably when the Wisconsin glacier was not
far away from that region. The surrounding country is covered with
Illinoian drift. This skull is now the property of the U. S. National
Museum.
In the collection of the Ohio State Archæological and Historical Society
at Columbus there are remains of _Platygonus compressus_, jaws and good
teeth, which were found about a mile north of Chalfants, in Perry
County, and along Jonathan Creek. This place is within the area covered
by Illinoian drift. It is possible that the remains are as old as the
Sangamon, but it is also possible that they belong to the close of the
Wisconsin stage (p. 215).
The writer knows of no other fossil vertebrates that have certainly been
found within the area occupied by the Illinoian till as a surface
deposit.
As shown by map 36, by far the larger number of Pleistocene vertebrates
which have been discovered in Ohio have been met with within the region
occupied by the Wisconsin drift-sheet. One reason for this preponderance
is the greater area included. Another reason may be found in the fact
that the conditions were more favorable for the preservation of teeth
and bones. Much of the country was flat and swampy and the bones buried
in clay and muck have always been soaked with water. Also there has been
less erosion going on. Erosion leads to exposure and therefore to
destruction of skeletons.
On the map referred to are shown the various moraines that were left by
the Wisconsin ice-sheet in its retreat toward the north. Inasmuch as
most of the burials were in swamps resting on the drift, the animals
must have lived and died there after the ice had left that vicinity; how
long after one may not be able to determine. The mastodons and elephants
which have been found close to the shore of Lake Erie, especially if
buried near the surface, must have lived there at or after the time when
the waters had shrunken into Lake Warren. Such cases are furnished by
the mastodons and elephants found at Amboy (east of Ashtabula) (pp. 137,
150), at Cleveland (p. 79), and in Brownhelm Township, in Lorain County
(p. 79). The town of Amboy is about 130 feet above lake level and the
gravel-pit which there furnished _Elephas primigenius_ and _E. columbi_
was probably at about the same level. The writer has not been able to
confirm any case in which remains of proboscideans have been met with on
the south shore of the lake at a level lower than the Warren beach.
Mastodons may be traced to a lower level at the western end of the lake.
The one found in Springfield Township, Lucas County (p. 77), was buried
in deposits only about 45 feet above Lake Erie. As shown by the
topographical maps, the descent from this place and from Bowling Green,
Wood County, to the lake is a gradual one. It may become possible to
follow the presence of the mastodons, the elephants, and the giant
beaver in Ohio up to the time when the lake assumed its present level.
For information regarding the several interesting discoveries of the
giant beaver (_Castoroides ohioensis_) pages 273 to 275 may be
consulted.
It is hardly necessary to take up one by one all the cases of
vertebrates that have been met with within the area covered by Wisconsin
drift. With the few exceptions noted below, their geological age is
usually to be regarded as Late Wisconsin. Along the southern border of
this drift, where the remains are deeply buried, it is not unlikely that
they lie in a pre-Wisconsin interglacial deposit. Along Great Miami and
Muskingum Rivers there is always a possibility that the fossils may
occur in a terrace or in a deep valley deposit of Illinoian age.
About a mile east of Overpeck, Butler County, there has been found the
skull of an extinct bear, _Ursus procerus_ Miller (Hay, Geol. Surv.
Indiana, vol. XXXVI, 1912, pp. 772–776, figs. 71–73). It was found at a
depth of 28 feet and about 3 or 4 feet above the limestone rock of that
region. To the writer it seems quite certain that the Wisconsin drift
had been penetrated and that the skull was in either a Sangamon
interglacial deposit or something still older.
Columbus furnishes one of the rare cases in which horse remains have
been found within the Wisconsin glaciated area (p. 186). We are then
required to determine whether or not the horse, _Equus complicatus_, did
not live there after the close of the Wisconsin stage. As said on the
page cited, the first remains of horses discovered at Columbus were
reported as having been found in crevices of the limestone and in the
red clay filling such fissures. An examination of the Columbus Folio
(197, U. S. Geol. Surv., p. 8) will show that in such crevices, south of
Scioto River, a red clay is found which antedates the Illinoian drift,
so that one might fairly refer the horse remains reported by Whittlesey
to a pre-Illinoian interglacial stage, possibly the Aftonian. The
horse-teeth found in the excavations at the penitentiary close to Scioto
River may be as old as those found in the rock fissures, or they may
have been buried in a post-Illinoian interglacial deposit. Such deposits
have been found at various places in the quadrangle (fol. cit., p. 9).
As to the peccaries discovered at Columbus (p. 214), the writer sees no
reason why they should not be regarded as belonging to the Late
Wisconsin.
MICHIGAN.
To understand the Pleistocene geology of the southern peninsula of
Michigan, it is indispensable to study Monograph LIII of the U. S.
Geological Survey, by Frank Leverett and F. B. Taylor. The whole
peninsula is overlain by glacial deposits laid down by the Wisconsin
ice-sheet. A glance at their glacial map (plate VII) will indicate to
the student the complexity of glacial problems in this region. The ice
invaded the State from three sides: on the west from Lake Michigan, on
the east from Lake Huron, and on the southeast from Lake Erie.
On the west, close to Lake Michigan, is a system of Lake-border
moraines. This system has been traced more or less satisfactorily around
to Saginaw Bay, Lake Huron. A little farther out, in the southwestern
corner of the State, is Valparaiso moraine. This extends nearly to the
northern end of the peninsula, where it connects with Charlotte moraine
system. Farther in than the Valparaiso system is the Kalamazoo. This
extends northeastwardly from the Indiana line to Barry County, where it
turns east and at Jackson joins the Mississinawa system reaching
northeast from the northeastern corner of Indiana. The Valparaiso and
Kalamazoo moraines are in places closely associated. The attack on the
eastern side of the State came principally from a lobe which flowed
through Saginaw Bay. Nearest Lake Huron, following it around from Port
Huron to the northern end of the peninsula and then turning west, the
Port Huron moraine connected with the moraine along Lake Michigan.
Farther inland is the Charlotte system. On the north, just above
latitude 44°, this joins the Valparaiso moraine, runs southward west of
Lansing, then turns eastward, then northeastward, and connects with the
Defiance moraine, which passes around the western end of Lake Erie.
Reaching far out from the head of Saginaw Bay, and concentric with it,
to Hastings, 100 miles away, are many minor moraines.