1. North Bay, Nipissing County.—In the U. S. National Museum is a horn-sheath, found at this place. It was sent by Dr. Charles E. Cook, of Lockport, New York, who himself saw it thrown out of a ditch, about 5 feet deep, which was being made from the shore of the lake. The horn was found at a distance of 600 feet from the lake and in front of the Hotel Queen’s. It certainly belongs to the existing species, Bison bison. Whether the presence of the horn at that spot is due to the former existence of the American buffalo there or to its introduction by man it is impossible to say at present.
1. Orleans, Cape Cod.—In 1920 (Jour. Mamm., vol. I, pp. 161–164, figs. 1–3), Dr. G. M. Allen presented an account of the discovery of a maxilla containing the penultimate and the hindermost milk teeth of a calf of Bison bison, at Orleans, Cape Cod. This specimen had been collected about 20 years previously by Dr. A. W. Grabau and presented by him to the Boston Society of Natural History. The bone and teeth were found “wholly embedded in till about halfway up on a section of a glacial moraine, situated on Town Cove and about 70 or 80 feet high.” With the specimen were associated many fragments of the shells of the mollusk Venus. Dr. Allen suggested that this bison calf had either come to its end while wandering on the moraine or had more likely lived and died during the preceding Peoria interglacial stage. It might be questioned whether bones which had been buried and thereby become softened would have endured the rough treatment of a glacial mill.
1. Albany, Albany County.—Dr. John M. Clarke, State geologist of New York, sent the writer some teeth of a species of Bison, probably B. bison, for which he gives the assurance that they were found somewhere in the vicinity of Albany, and in the “Albany clays.” These clays are supposed to belong to the Champlain stage. While this is somewhat further east than the bison has extended within historical times, it is entirely reasonable to suppose that at some time in the not distant past its range went to the Hudson. Indeed, Dr. G. M. Allen has recently shown (Jour. Mamm., vol. I, pp. 161–164) that at some time during the late Pleistocene a bison lived in the region of Cape Cod. The specimens sent by Dr. Clarke must have occupied eastern New York late in the Wisconsin stage.
2. Syracuse, Onondaga County.—In 1890 (Amer. Naturalist, vol. XXIV, p. 953), Professor Lucien Underwood reported the discovery of a skull of a bison in Syracuse, while a sewer was being excavated. Underwood stated that it was found at a depth of 10 feet, in a black muck. Professor E. D. Cope identified the skull as that of Bison bison. The present writer, in 1914, examined the skull at Syracuse University. He also talked with Mr. John Cunningham, who bought the skull from the finder, a laborer, paying him one dollar. Mr. Cunningham stated that he went to the spot and measured the depth from the surface, and found it to be 17 feet. Above the muck that inclosed the skull was what he regarded as clay. Dr. Burnett Smith has examined the deposits in a cellar dug within a few rods of the spot where the skull was found. The upper 7 or 8 feet was a mixture of shells and clay, and had been used to make a kind of cement. This discovery appears to make it certain that the bison lived in New York shortly after the Wisconsin ice had retired from the Finger Lake region.
3. Jamestown, Chautauqua County.—In the American Journal of Science, volume XXVII, 1835, page 166, is an account, by Knight, of the discovery, at Jamestown, of what were probably two teeth of a bison in a fragment of the jaw. These were encountered by John Hazeltine, in digging for a foundation of a building at the outlet of Chautauqua Lake, and at a depth of 10 feet. The soil was mostly gravel, but the jaw was said to have been lying in black muck. It was sent to Yale College, but was not recognized as belonging to Bison. Reasons were suggested why it did not belong to a young mastodon. The measurements given of the teeth agree well with the upper molars of an American buffalo. Joseph Leidy (Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., vol. VII, 1869, p. 371) quoted Knight’s account as indicating a buffalo. The discovery is interesting, taken in connection with the finding of the specimen at Syracuse.
1. Trenton, Mercer County.—Mr. Ernest Volk (Papers Peabody Mus., vol. V, 1911, p. 209, plate CXX) reported the discovery of a part of a femur of Bison (probably B. bison) in the “yellow drift,” at Trenton, 2.5 feet from the surface. A first right upper molar, identified as that of Bison, was found in another sand-pit at a depth of 9 feet (op. cit., p. 136). This appears to have belonged in the Trenton gravel, but at that point the materials were apparently a mixture of sand and loam. The reader is referred to page 304, where the geology of this locality is described and a list of the species is given.
1. Stroudsburg, Monroe County.—In Crystal Hill (Hartman’s) Cave, near Stroudsburg, was found a lower jaw containing the last molar, as noted by Leidy (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1880, p. 347; Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv. Pennsylvania for 1887, p. 5). Mercer (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1894, p. 98), mentions a tooth of the existing bison found in Hartman’s Cave.
2. Riegelsville, Bucks County.—From a cave near Riegelsville, was sent to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, more than 70 years ago, a collection of bones, reported on by Leidy in 1880 (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1880, p. 349) and in 1889 (Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv., Pennsylvania, 1887, pp. 18–19). In the contribution of 1880, Leidy included Bison among the animals represented, but this is not included in the list of 1887. Why this was omitted is not known. If Bison occurred there, the probability is that it was represented by the existing buffalo.
1. Jasper County.—The only record known to the writer of the finding of buffalo bones worthy to be regarded as fossil is that of the former State geologist, John Collett (Geol. Surv. Indiana, vol. XII, p. 73), who makes the statement that in Jasper County bones of the buffalo, the beaver, and the bear are common.
1. Sullivan, Moultrie County.—In 1875 (Geol. Surv. Illinois, vol. VI, p. 186), the geologist George C. Broadhead reported that he had found the skull of a bison on the west bank of Kaskaskia River, about 3 miles southeast of Sullivan, on the land of John Purvis. The locality appears, therefore, to have been somewhere near the south half of the eastern line of township 13 north, range 5 east. The summit of the bluff here is described as rising about 25 feet above the stream. At the height of about 8 feet was a bench approximately 10 feet wide, and the skull was found on this bench, “a few feet from the top.” The surrounding clay was described as being a rich black loam.
Broadhead stated that the skull measured 12 inches across the forehead above the eyes and the same between the roots of the horns. The latter were short, thick, and slightly curved. In the Transactions of the St. Louis Academy of Science, volume III, page XXIII, practically the same account is given of the discovery. Here Broadhead expressed the idea that the skull belonged to Bison latifrons, and said that the horns were short, thick, and curved upwards and forwards. It is not known where the skull now is. To the writer it appears most probable that the skull was that of Bison bison. There is nothing in the description to indicate any of the other known species. As to the age of the deposits, the presumption is reasonable that they belong to the Late Wisconsin or Recent, for the locality is north of the Shelbyville moraine. It is possible that the bench belongs to the Illinoian; but the nature of the material, “a rich black loam,” seems to show that the bench is an alluvial deposit laid down since Wisconsin times.
2. Homer, Champaign County.—In the collection at the State University of Illinois, at Champaign, are the horn-cores and the rear of the skull of Bison bison, reported to have been thrown out of a ditch near Homer. The writer is informed by Professor R. M. Bagg, of Appleton, Wisconsin, that the specimen was found in excavating a ditch, at a depth of 4 feet, according to the report made to him. Homer is situated on a part of the Champaign moraine and the bison in question must be not older than Late Wisconsin. If it was really found at a depth of 4 feet it would seem to date well back in the Recent, if not into the Pleistocene.
3. Niantic, Macon County.—Professor A. H. Worthen reported (Geol. Surv. Illinois, vol. V, p. 308) the presence of bones of the buffalo in an old filled-up marsh near Niantic. The situation is more particularly described on page 102. With the bison bones were found those of the mastodon, the elk, and the Virginia deer. The bones of these animals are said to have been found under 4 feet of black muck, partly embedded in a light-gray quicksand filled with shells of Planorbis, Cyclas, and Physa.
Inasmuch as Niantic is situated near the border of the Shelbyville moraine, all these remains probably belong to Late Wisconsin times. It would be useful to know whether the bones of the buffalo, the elk, and the deer were found above those of the mastodons or mingled with them.
4. East of Whitewillow, Kendall County.—In township 35 north, range 8 east, probably in section 27, on land owned by John Bamford, in clearing out a well in a bog, have been found the bones of mastodons and other species of vertebrates. For a description of the locality and the species found there see page 337. Mr. George Langford, of Joliet, has reported the occurrence of bones of the existing bison there and has sent to the writer a maxilla which contained finely preserved teeth.
Unfortunately, no thorough and systematic examination of the place has yet been made. All of the species and the deposit belong to the Late Wisconsin, that part of it following the withdrawal of the ice. Mr. George Langford informed the author that he found the bison and deer bones mixed up more or less with the mastodon bones. At a depth of about 4 to 5 feet the owner of the place began to strike bones of the bison, which appeared very fresh, retaining considerable animal matter. From about 6 feet down to gravel, about 13 feet, mastodon and other bones were literally packed together.
5. Batavia, Kane County.—Dr. E. S. Riggs, of the Department of Palæontology, Field Museum of Natural History, wrote to the author that he had picked up some bison bones along a ditch in which mastodon bones had been found; but the depth at which they had been met with could not be determined. At the same time bones of the elk were found. Undoubtedly the mastodon remains belong to Late Wisconsin times; and it is probable that the bison and elk remains are to be referred to the same.
6. Galena, Jo Daviess County.—In the collection of the Academy of Natural Science of Philadelphia is a lower hindermost molar collected in a lead crevice somewhere near Galena. It was presented to the Academy by Mr. Henry Green, of Elizabeth, a town near Galena. This, with a metacarpal bone of Megalonyx jeffersonii, had been found at a depth of 130 feet from the surface. It was described and figured by Leidy (Contributions to Extinct Vert. Fauna, etc., 1873, p. 255, plate XXXVII, fig. 4). Leidy thought that it might have belonged to Bison bison, but not improbably to B. latifrons. J. A. Allen (The American Bisons, etc., p. 13) concluded that it belonged undoubtedly to the existing American species. The structure of the tooth will apparently not decide this matter. It is probable that most of the animals found in those lead crevices belong to pre-Wisconsin times; and the tooth in question may belong to an extinct species. A list of the species found in the lead region of Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin is to be found on page 343.
7. Mitchell, Madison County.—In “Records of Ancient Races in the Mississippi Valley” (1887), William McAdams, of Alton, Illinois, stated that in a large mound, square in shape, 300 feet on each side and 30 feet high, through which the railroads pass in the American bottom, at Mitchell, had been found, in contact with a number of copper implements and ornaments, a number of teeth of the buffalo. These McAdams had in his possession. While these teeth can not be regarded at all as belonging to Pleistocene times, the fact is of interest in connection with McAdams’s statement that in all his explorations during a period of more than 30 years, in no other case had he been able to find any evidences of the buffalo associated with the remains of the ancient people of this country. In this connection may be considered Shaler’s views on the modern coming of the buffalo east of the Mississippi River. On the other hand, account must be taken of the finding of a skull of a buffalo deep in lake deposits at Syracuse, New York.
1. Bluemounds, Dane County.—In his report, made in 1862, on the geology of the lead region of Wisconsin (Geol. Surv. Wisconsin, vol. I, p. 136), J. D. Whitney recorded the finding of bison bones in a crevice at Bluemounds. From the same crevice were obtained bones and teeth of the mastodon and of a peccary, and bones of a wolf. It was supposed that these remains were found at a depth of about 40 feet and embedded in the red clay commonly found in such crevices. These bones were put into the hands of Jeffries Wyman for identification, who, on page 421, stated that the bison bones were all of the size of the same parts of the existing buffalo and closely resembled them. J. A. Allen (Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. XI, 1876, p. 47), in referring probably to the same bones, speaks of “an extinct bison,” without, however, giving any reasons for his conclusion. It is nevertheless possible that he was correct.
The writer formerly believed that the fossil vertebrates, collected in the fissures in the lead region, had lived after the close of the Wisconsin glacial stage. It seems now more probable that they belong to a pre-Wisconsin time.
2. Oshkosh, Winnebago County.—The writer has received from Dr. S. Weidman, State geologist of Wisconsin, a humerus, found in a marsh near Oshkosh, quite evidently that of Bison bison. Although stained by iron on the outside, the remainder of the bone is white and full of animal matter. The animal may have lived during the Recent period.
1. Bigbone Lick, Boone County.—Great numbers of individuals of Bison bison have been found at Bigbone Lick. Cooper (Monthly Amer. Jour. Geol., vol. I, pp. 207, 211) reported numerous bones of buffaloes and even an entire skeleton, but they appear to have been near the surface or even on it. Lyell (“Travels in North America,” Murray’s ed., vol. II, p. 65) stated that he had seen great quantities of remains of the bison in a superficial stratum in the river bank; but he was left in doubt whether or not the animals had been contemporaneous with the mastodon. Shaler (Geol. Surv. Kentucky, n. s., vol. III, p. 197) found abundant remains of the buffalo at this place; but the bones were not found at any great depth, except in the bog about the spring. He regarded it as proven that the musk-ox and the caribou did not come into contact with the recent buffalo, but were extinct before it came. Some of the bison materials collected by Shaler were described by Dr. J. A. Allen, in 1876 (Mem. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. IV; Mem. Geol. Surv. Kentucky, vol. I, pt. 2). It may be difficult to prove that any of the bison bones and teeth found here are of Pleistocene age; but there appears to be no good reason why this species might not have reached that region at the close of the Wisconsin ice-stage. A list of the species of mammals found here is given on page 403.
2. Bluelick Springs, Nicholas County.—In the mass of materials collected in the spring at Bluelick Springs by Mr. Thomas W. Hunter, were skulls and parts thereof, teeth, limb-bones, and vertebræ. The actual geological age of these remains can not be established; but they were of probably late Wisconsin age.