any considerable area than does Tennessee. Lying, as it does, away from
the sea, there are no marine Pleistocene beds; situated beyond the
glacial area, there are no glacial-drift deposits; and almost half of
the State, the eastern, being mountainous, with rivers running in narrow
valleys, there has been little opportunity for accumulation of loose
Pleistocene materials. The U. S. Geological Survey has published about
25 folios describing the geology of this mountainous part of Tennessee.
One will search these folios, perhaps in vain, for any mention of
Pleistocene deposits and for traces of these on the maps. Now and then
mention is made of narrow strips of alluvium along some of the larger
rivers; nevertheless there are evidences that in some of these strips
there are Pleistocene deposits. From the mountainous region westward to
near Mississippi River there have doubtless been, during the
Pleistocene, better opportunities for deposition of alluvium along the
river courses, but such deposits have been little studied. Along the
great river forming the western boundary there is a band, 10 to perhaps
25 miles in width, overlain by loess. This may attain a depth along the
river varying from 20 to 70 feet, but away from the river it thins out
to a feather-edge (Glenn, Water Supply Paper 114, U. S. Geol. Surv.). Up
to this time, however, it has furnished few, if any, Pleistocene
fossils.
Notwithstanding the paucity of Pleistocene areas in the mountainous
portion of Tennessee, this region has furnished a considerable number of
species of Pleistocene vertebrates, and bids fair to furnish its due
proportion (fig. 23). These species occur, not in water-laid or
wind-laid deposits, but in caves which abound in the limestones of that
region. In 1918 (Resources of Tenn., vol. VIII, pp. 85–142), Mr. Thomas
L. Bailey located and described more than 100 caves of considerable
size. Many had been worked to obtain saltpeter. Bones have been reported
from a few of them; probably bones had been met with in others, but were
not regarded as important. In these caves (and in others yet to be
discovered) may hereafter be found numerous remains of animals. Other
sources for such fossils are the crevices that are sometimes opened up
in quarrying operations. Caves and crevices of this kind are found in
the Alleghany Mountain region from northern Pennsylvania to Lookout
Mountain in Tennessee, and from them there is already known an extensive
Pleistocene fauna.
Beginning in the northeastern corner of the State, a brief survey will
be made of the localities and fossils which concern us. At Kingsport, in
Sullivan County (fig. 23, _1_) the writer has learned of the finding of
a mastodon tooth (p. 127), but beyond the fact that it was owned by Mr.
D. M. Lafitte, the writer has been able to learn nothing.
From Bristol, Sullivan County (fig. 23, _2_), in the northeastern corner
of the State, there has been sent to the U. S. National Museum a
fragment of a maxilla containing two teeth of a tapir. This is referred
to _Tapirus haysii_. No details regarding the place of discovery or of
the geological conditions are known (p. 209).
From Hawkins County, at a locality not specified (fig. 23, _3_) another
mastodon tooth has been reported by Dr. S. W. McCallie (Science, ser. 2,
vol. XX, p. 333) (p. 127). These announcements show at least that these
animals could exist in those rough and elevated regions. From crevices
in a marble quarry near Rogersville (fig. 23, _4_), Hawkins County,
there were sent many years ago to the U. S. National Museum a tooth of
the horse _Equus leidyi_ (p. 201); and a canine tooth of a very large
peccary, _Mylohyus setiger_ (p. 222). The same peccary has been secured
from Cavetown, Maryland.
[Illustration:
Fig. 23.—Localities where fossil vertebrates have been found in
Tennessee.
]
1. Kingsport, Sullivan County. Mammut americanum (p. 127).
2. Bristol, Sullivan County. Tapirus haysii (p. 209).
3. —— Hawkins County. Mammut americanum (p. 127).
4. Rogersville, Hawkins County. Equus leidyi, Mylohyus setiger (p.
394).
5. Whitesburg, Hamblen County. 19 species (p. 395).
6. Mossy Creek, Jefferson County. Mammut americanum (p. 127).
7. Zirkel’s Cave, Jefferson County. Tapir, peccary, bear, etc., (p.
396).
8. Dandridge, Jefferson County. Mammut americanum (p. 127).
9. Near Knoxville, Knox County. Mammut americanum (p. 127).
10. Lookout Mountain, Hamilton County. Equus littoralis, Mylodon? sp.
indet., Tapirus sp. indet., etc., (p. 396).
11. Elroy, VanBuren County. Megalonyx jeffersonii, etc. (p. 397).
12. 11 miles west of Nashville. Mammut americanum (p. 127).
13. 11 miles southeast of Nashville. Mammut americanum (p. 127).
14. Nashville, Davidson County. Equus leidyi, E. complicatus?,
Camelops? sp. indet., Mylodon harlani, Odocoileus sp. indet. (p.
399).
15. Columbia, Maury County. Elephas sp. indet. (p. 181.)
17. Memphis, Shelby County. Megalonyx sp. indet., Castoroides
ohioensis, Mammut americanum (p. 400.)
In the U. S. National Museum is a collection of remains of vertebrate
animals made about 1885 by Mr. Ira Sayles, a collector for the U. S.
Geological Survey, from a point about a mile north of Whitesburg,
Hamblen County (fig. 23, _5_). Some masses of the matrix which contained
the bones accompany the collection. This matrix is a red earth such as
is often found in the floor of caves and in fissures in limestone, the
result of the decomposition of the calcareous rock. Some fragments are
to a great extent made up of broken bones. It is evident, however, that
there is now no cave at that place. Sayles suggested that the bones were
“kitchen-middens” and that there had been an old fortification there.
Possibly a cave or a fissure once existed there and the rock inclosing
it may have dissolved away, leaving the floor.
In this collection the writer has found the following species; these
were described in 1920 (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. LVIII, pp. 85–95,
plates III, IV; text-figs. 1–3). Those preceded by an asterisk are
extinct.
_List of species._
*Testudo munda.
*Equus leidyi (p. 201).
*E. littoralis (p. 201).
*Tapirus tennesseæ (p. 209).
*Mylohyus nasutus (p. 223).
Odocoileus virginianus (p. 234).
*Sangamona fugitiva.
Cervus canadensis (p. 243).
*Elephas primigenius.
Sciurus carolinensis.
Tamias striatus.
Marmota monax.
Castor canadensis.
Neotoma pennsylvanica?.
Microtus pennsylvanicus.
Lepus americanus.
Ursus floridanus.
Procyon lotor.
*Ænocyon ayersi?.
In this list there are 19 species, of which 8 are extinct. The latter
form, therefore, 42 per cent of the whole list. This ratio appears to
indicate a time about the middle of the Pleistocene. There are no forms
that require an earlier date and there is good reason for believing that
the horses and the tapir did not exist after the last glacial stage,
perhaps not after the Sangamon interglacial.
It is interesting to find in eastern Tennessee the remains of _Elephas
primigenius_. The discovery of teeth of this animal at Beaufort, North
Carolina, in eastern Tennessee, and especially in Texas, proves that the
range of that species extended even farther south in the New World than
it did in the old. It is not improbable that the animal withdrew to the
south during one or more of the glacial stages. However, none of the
other species found at Whitesburg suggests a cooler climate than now
prevails there.
It is possible that some of the forms referred to existing species are
really extinct. The teeth identified as those of _Odocoileus
virginianus_ are smaller than those usually found in recent individuals.
The deer _Sangamona fugitiva_ appears in a collection made at Cavetown,
Maryland, and in another made at Alton, Illinois, in or beneath deposits
of loess that are believed to have been laid down about the time of the
Sangamon stage.
In Jefferson County mastodon remains have been found at two places,
Dandridge (fig. 23, _8_) and Mossy Creek. No details are known about the
first case; in the case of the tooth found 3 miles south of Mossy Creek
(fig. 23, _6_) it is stated that it was discovered at a depth of 6 feet
and beneath a white oak stump. Between the two villages, on the left
bank of Dumplin Creek, 5 miles above its mouth, is Zirkel’s Cave. From
this cave (fig. 23, _7_) Mercer (Dept. Amer. Archæol. Univ. Penn., 1896)
reported the discovery of remains of tapir (p. 395), peccary (p. 223),
bear, and small rodents; but to what species they belonged is not known.
The tapir and the peccary indicate Pleistocene times. The bear probably
belonged to the same epoch.
At a point 7 miles southeast of Knoxville (fig. 23, _9_) Professor S. W.
McCallie reported the finding of a mastodon tooth beneath 30 inches of
clay. At Lookout Mountain (p. 395, fig. 23, _10_) have been secured a
tooth of a horse, probably _Equus littoralis_ (p. 201), remains of tapir
and probably of _Mylodon_ (p. 43). Just where the horse-tooth was found
is not known. The tapir was found in a cave on the left bank of
Tennessee River, 0.25 mile below the mouth of Chattanooga Creek (Mercer,
as cited above; also in Amer. Naturalist, vol. XXVIII, p. 355). Mercer’s
accounts are brief and were intended only as preliminary reports. From
him, through Miss Harriet Newell Wardle, of Philadelphia, the writer has
received a letter in which are given some details about the
investigation of this cave in 1893 and 1896.
Dr. Mercer extended his trench inward from the entrance a distance of
about 50 feet and downward to the rocky bottom of the cave. He
recognized the presence of three layers, as follows: (1) top layer, from
6 to 8 inches deep, containing relics of both white man and Indian; (2)
middle layer, about 2 feet thick, containing evidence of Indian only;
(3) red cave earth, varying from one to several feet in thickness,
according to the uneven conditions of the cave floor. This latter layer
was subdivided into an upper zone (_a_) about a foot deep, which showed
evidences of intrusion of bones and refuse from the overlying layer, and
(_b_) the undisturbed red earth which contained bones of bats and
perhaps of some other animals. In the upper zone (_a_) of the red-earth
layer Mercer found a jawbone and loose teeth of _Tapirus haysii_ (p.
209) and a jawbone of _Mylodon_ (p. 43) without teeth, both as
identified by Professor Cope. Later, Cope became doubtful as to the
_Mylodon_ bone. In this upper zone of red earth, “within a few varying
inches of the depth of the tapir specimen above or below it,” Mercer
found bones of cave rats (_Neotoma_), marmot (_Marmota_), squirrel,
deer, opossum, teeth and fragments of the skull of a large unidentified
mammal, a small and a large bird, wild turkey, two species of turtles,
frogs, and drum-fish. The skull and other bones of the large
unidentified mammal had plainly been cracked to secure the marrow, and
were otherwise crushed and splintered. Also, as many as 493 hornstone
chips were found, besides bones rubbed to a point, and 10 potsherds. It
becomes a question how the tapir bone and teeth and perhaps the bone of
the mylodon and the evidences of the Indian’s presence got into this
upper layer of red earth. Mercer “thought it reasonable to conclude that
the tapir had been intruded into the red earth from the upper layer and
had been in contact with the Indians.” This appears to indicate the idea
that the tapir had existed there at a late period, probably after the
Pleistocene; but the evidences appear to show that this animal lived in
the United States not later than about the Sangamon stage of the
Pleistocene. It is more probable that the tapir remains had not been
disturbed and that the relics of man had, by some means, made their way
down into the red earth. There remains also the possibility that Indians
and tapirs and mylodons had lived together in that region during the
middle of the Pleistocene and while the upper foot of red clay was being
deposited. The presence of the other animals mentioned by Mercer does
not disprove this possibility, for all of them pretty certainly existed
there during the middle Pleistocene.
Not far from Elroy, Van Buren County (fig. 23, _11_) there is an
interesting cavern known as Bigbone Cave. This and the bones which it
has furnished are now to be described.
Mercer (Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc., vol. XXXVI, pp. 36–70) found that in
the greater part of this cave the nitrous earth that had formed the
floor had been removed to such an extent that on the walls its stains
remained at a height of one’s waist. Wherever any of this deposit
remained it was exceedingly dry and any disturbance of it produced a
cloud of dust. It appears to have consisted mostly of the dung and
excretions of animals, such as bats and cave rats. The preservation of
the cartilage and horny sheaths of the claw was due to this dryness of
the atmosphere. Where Mercer found the bones he recognized four layers,
to represent which he published a figure (op. cit., p. 47, fig. 4). This
is here reproduced with unimportant changes (fig. 24). On top there was
a layer from 2 to 3 inches thick which had resulted from the disturbance
produced by the passing of white men and possibly to some extent of
Indians. With the dust were mingled remains of charred vegetable
substances that had been used as torches.
[Illustration:
FIG. 24.—Diagram showing a vertical section of the gallery in Bigbone
Cave near Elroy, Van Buren County, Tenn. Adapted from Mercer.
]
The second layer was 2 to 5 feet deep and consisted almost entirely of
well-preserved dried excrements of cave rats (_Neotoma_) and of
porcupines (_Erethizon_). In it were observed nuts, sticks, fur, and
moss. The only animal remains found in this layer were the bones of
_Megalonyx_ (p. 42), quills and coprolites of _Erethizon dorsatum_,
coprolites and a jaw of a cave rat referred to _Neotoma magister_, and
jaws of two bats, _Adelonycteris fuscus_ and _Myotis subulatus_
(_Vespertilio gryphus_ of Mercer). Some traces were found of an
undetermined herbivorous mammal about as large as a bear. With the lot
of _Megalonyx_ bones from this cave which were described by Harlan there
were remains referred to _Bos_ (_Bison_), _Ursus_, _Cervus_
(_Odocoileus?_), and a human metatarsal; but these were reported as
having been picked up on the surface and may therefore have belonged to
quite recent skeletons.
Besides the animal remains found by Mercer in his second layer, there
were present quantities of vegetable matter belonging to several
species. All, however, were forms yet living in that region.
Mercer’s third layer appears to have consisted of dry excrements which
had become somewhat hardened. Its thickness was a foot. In it were found
vegetable matter, some bat jaws and fur, and the carcass of a “window
fly.” The fourth layer consisted of a fine water-laid clay which on
drying had contracted and broken up into small angular masses. The
interstices appear to have been filled by materials soaking down from
the upper layers of excrement. No organisms were found in it.
Mercer concluded that the sloth remains were geologically recent, and
this may be true. _Megalonyx jeffersonii_ has been found in the northern
States in deposits overlying the Wisconsin drift, and it is quite
reasonable to suppose that the animal existed in Tennessee up to as late
a time as it did in Ohio and Illinois. The persistence of the cartilages
of the sloth, and the framework of the window fly which lay below the
sloth bones, naturally suggests a comparatively short time; but if,
through the dryness of the cave, they could endure a thousand years,
they might possibly endure several thousand. One must consider also the
length of time required for 1.5 or 2 feet of cave floor to be built up
from the excrements of bats, porcupines, and cave rats, but there is no
reason to refer the time back further than about the close of the
Wisconsin stage.
On another page (p. 127) is presented the little that is known about the
remains of two mastodons which have been reported from the region about
Nashville. One tooth was found 11 miles west of the city (fig. 23,
_12_); a part of a skeleton at a point 11 miles southeast of it (fig.
23, _13_). A tooth of an undetermined species of elephant was found long
ago near Columbia, Maury County (p. 395, fig. 23, _15_). According to
Folio 95 of the U. S. Geological Survey, there are some narrow strips of
alluvium along Duck River, at Columbia. The tooth may or may not have
been found in this alluvium. Apparently in the neighborhood of Gallatin,
Sumner County (fig. 23, _16_), was found before 1835, at a depth of 40
feet, a tooth of an elephant (p. 181). The information furnished by the
tooth, as reported, is not worth much.
In June 1920, the writer received from Mr. William Edward Myer, of
Nashville, a small box of fossils, collected near Nashville (fig. 23,
_14_). The exact locality is given as being about 300 yards upstream
from Lock A, in Cumberland River. According to a sketch sent by Mr. Myer
and here reproduced (fig. 25), there are loose deposits about 30 feet in
thickness lying upon bed-rock. This bed-rock is found at about the level
of low-water in the river. On this rock there is found first a bed of
gravel, which, to judge from Myer’s sketch, is 2 or 3 feet in thickness.
Above this comes a bed of sand of about the same thickness. The rest of
the 30 feet is composed of gravel; and this rises to the level of the
flood-plain. In the lowermost stratum, the bed of gravel, were found a
tooth of _Equus leidyi_ (p. 201), a part of a femur of a horse of large
size (p. 201), and an antler of a small and probably unnamed deer (p.
234). This antler resembles those of some of the Central American
species of _Odocoileus_. In the next stratum above were found some
indeterminable fragments of turtle bones, a tooth of a young mastodon
(p. 127), and a calcaneum of a large camel (p. 225), belonging probably
to the genus _Camelops_. In October 1920, Mr. Myer sent from the same
locality a part of a molar of _Mylodon harlani_ (p. 43). These remains
appear to the writer to indicate that the deposits are of early
Pleistocene age, about that of the first interglacial.
[Illustration:
FIG. 25.—Section on Bank of Tennessee River at Nashville.
]
Somewhere about Memphis (fig. 23, _17_), were found, about the middle of
the last century, some scanty remains of a young mastodon, a bone of
_Megalonyx_ (p. 43), and a part of a lower jaw of _Castoroides_ (p.
280). Jeffries Wyman thought that these remains had been found in
diluvium of the Mississippi River. It appears probable that they were
found in the loess, which is well developed at that locality. Some
exactness in reporting the locality would have led to the solution of
this question.
KENTUCKY.
The State of Kentucky lies almost wholly south of the area of
glaciation. Only along Ohio River, from about 50 miles above Cincinnati
to about as many miles below, do any ice-laid drift materials appear,
and these belong to the Illinoian glacial stage. For information on this
drift the reader may consult Leverett’s account (Monogr. U. S. Geol.
Surv., vol. XLI, pp. 256–258, plate II). Near Carrolton, between Ohio
and Kentucky Rivers, is a ridge of Illinoian drift which rises as much
as 200 feet above low water. Later-formed terraces of these rivers are
found up to 90 feet. Not far away from this locality drift materials are
found on the highlands to a height of 300 feet above the Ohio. Below
Rising Sun, Indiana, on the Kentucky side, are knolls of drift deposits
rising about 150 feet above the river. This Illinoian drift occupies
nearly the whole of Boone County; elsewhere it forms a narrow strip
along the Ohio.
Naturally there were laid down, at various times during the Pleistocene,
deposits beyond the glacial front. Rivers coming down from the glaciers
brought into the Ohio valley enormous quantities of gravel, sands, and
clay, much of which must have been deposited along the banks or at the
bottom. Such materials may have been laid down there during all or some
of the earlier glacial stages, some perhaps during interglacial times.
Probably at later times the most of these early deposits were swept
away, but some may have persisted. The rock floor of the Ohio (Leverett,
op. cit., p. 83) is below the level of the present stream, generally
between 30 and 60 feet, and, at some points in its lower course, 75
feet. There might, therefore, now exist Illinoian drift materials
anywhere above this rocky floor, as well as high up on the bluffs. It
may be difficult, sometimes impossible, to determine the actual age of
such deposits. During the whole Pleistocene, the rivers which enter the
Ohio from the south were bearers of fine and coarse materials from the
higher lands where they took origin. Sometimes, and in some parts of
their courses, they may have occupied channels other than those now
holding the waters. During times of depression of the country the
sediments were dropped along the channels until the latter may have been
nearly filled. Then the country may later have become elevated, so that
the streams again cut down and left some of the old deposits as
terraces. In some parts of the State, as in the region of Mammoth Cave,
water circulating in the limestone rocks has dissolved these so as to
produce caverns and fissures of various sizes. In such caves, when they
became opened to the surface, animals would seek hiding-places and would
perhaps bring in others as their prey. Dying there, their bones might be
preserved. From such a cave has been secured a fine specimen of the
skull of a peccary (p. 223). Such caves should be examined with great
care.
One of the most famous localities for fossil vertebrates in this country
is that known as Bigbone Lick, in Boone County, about 22 miles in a
straight line southwest of Cincinnati. Fossil bones were collected there
as long ago as 1739. A condensed history of the explorations made there
for fossils was given by William Cooper in 1831 (Monthly Amer. Jour.
Geol., vol. I, pp. 158–174, 205–216). An account of the locality, its
geology, and something about the fossil vertebrates and fresh-water
mollusks found there was given by the geologist Charles Lyell in 1845
(“Travels in North America,” Murray ed., vol. II, pp. 62–66).
Enormous quantities of bones and teeth, especially those of _Mammut
americanum_, have been collected at this place. When it was first
discovered, bones of this animal, of the elephants, and some others,
must have been lying exposed on the surface, the result probably of
erosion by the creek passing there through what was then a marsh.
General William Henry Harrison, in 1795, shipped from there 13 hogsheads
of bones, but these were lost on their way to Pittsburgh. Dr. Goforth is
reported to have got as many mastodon teeth as a wagon and four horses
could draw. These teeth are said to have weighed from 12 to 20 pounds
each. If this statement of weights is true, some or all of the teeth
were those of elephants. In 1807, General William Clark made a
collection at Bigbone Lick, at the instances of President Thomas
Jefferson. Brief notices of these were published by Dr. Samuel L.
Mitchill and by Dr. Caspar Wistar. Some of these bones were sent to the
American Philosophical Society at Philadelphia and were afterwards put
into the collection of the Academy of Natural Sciences. Another part was
sent to Paris. Remains of various species, mostly the mastodon, have
gone into many museums of this country and of Europe; but it is evident
that the greater part of the things collected there, and especially of
the finest things, has been lost to science.