Fig. 11.—Section of Port Kennedy bone cave at time of first exploration, 1871. Redrawn from Mercer.
M, M, Triassic shale; AL, Triassic shale; B, black clay, with leaves, etc.
Mercer (1899, p. 269) has given a description of the cave found in quarrying operations. It was located on the right bank of the Schuylkill River, at the village of Port Kennedy and about 2 miles below Valley Forge. Wheatley (1871, p. 236) gave a map which showed the position of the quarries. A comparison of this with the topographical map of Folio 162 of the U. S. Geological Survey shows that they were situated about 800 feet away from the river and facing the valley of an unnamed streamlet. None of the descriptions give the elevation of the cave above the river or above the sea. The river at that place is apparently about 70 feet above sea-level. The 100–foot contour-line runs along near the location of the quarries, but these may have extended back to a higher level. Putting all of the statements together, it appears probable that the mouth of the cave was, in Wheatley’s time, about 50 feet above the level of the river. Originally the surface elevation may have been still greater, but may have been reduced by erosion of the hill. The surface rock here is red shale of the Stockton formation, belonging to the Triassic, and is underlain by the Shenandoah limestone, a member of the Cambro-Ordovician series. This limestone was being quarried in 1871, when a cave was broken into, filled with incoherent materials and exposing fossil bones in abundance. It was visited by Charles Wheatley, who proceeded to make excavations and collect the fossils. In studying the fossils he worked with Professor E. D. Cope and Dr. G. H. Horn. The results were published in Wheatley’s two papers of 1871 and in two papers by Cope in the same year (Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc., vol. XII, pp. 15, 73–102). According to Wheatley’s description and his figures, the part of the cave seen was about 20 feet wide at the top, expanded below to about 30 feet, and then narrowed at the bottom, as then recognized, to about 10 feet. The depth was given as 40 feet, but Mercer thinks that this was improbable and that Wheatley’s measurements were to some extent guesses. Mercer (1899, p. 271) stated that this cave might be compared to a bottle of unknown size. It had opened to the surface; and on his page 283 Mercer spoke of it as forming a well-like hole that might have been as much as 70 feet deep. Evidently Mercer here included that part of it which he himself excavated. The materials filling it were, according to Cope (1871, p. 73), the débris of the neighboring Triassic strata. Figure 11 is taken from Mercer’s paper and is a reproduction of a sketch made by Wheatley in 1871. After Wheatley had made his collection the cave was covered over by débris from the quarry and forgotten.
Fig. 12.—Section of Port Kennedy bone cave at time of last exploration, 1894. Redrawn from Mercer.
In the course of further quarrying operations the same cave was broken into again in 1893. Excavations in the materials that filled the cave were made in 1894 by Dr. Samuel Dixon, H. C. Mercer, and others, resulting in the securing of the collection which formed the subject of Cope’s paper of 1894 and his final report of 1899. At this time, according to Mercer, the quarrying operations carried on from 1855 had transformed a gently sloping hillside into an amphitheater several acres in extent, walled with perpendicular escarpments of rock, sometimes a hundred feet high. At this time the floor of the quarry had been lowered and the cave was broken into at a level below that reached by Wheatley. Figure 12, reproduced from Mercer’s figure 5, shows the relation of the later excavations to those of 1871. As already stated, Mercer concluded that Wheatley’s dimensions were probably results of guesses, inasmuch as the top of Mercer’s exposure was not more than 30 or 33 feet below the original level of the hilltop. According to Mercer’s figure 5, his own excavation probably extended down about 16 feet below the level reached by Wheatley; but other statements appear to make this somewhat greater.
Mercer wrote that the materials filling the cave had been stratified by the action of water. He recognized four subdivisions, most of which stood higher around the walls than at the center of the cave. Of these subdivisions, the first and uppermost was supposed to mark the lowest level attained by Wheatley. It consisted of fine clay and loam of black color, intermingled with fine and coarse muck, in which were found some remains of small mammals, just what species was not stated. On his chart, his figure 9, a tapir is indicated as occurring in it. Subdivision 2 was composed of from 4 to 11 feet of sandy clay, with fragments of sandstone and limestone, from small ones up to about 2 feet in diameter. In this matrix there were numerous bones and teeth of large animals, but it lacked small ones and vegetal matter. Subdivision 3 was a sandy clay, blackened by vegetable matter and containing numerous bones of vertebrates, large and small. The lowest subdivision, 4, was a zone which was followed down about 10 feet and which consisted of sand, clay, and stones, all of a yellow color. In this were found remains of the larger mammals, better preserved than in the upper subdivisions. At the lowest depth reached the excavation appears to have extended below the level of the Schuylkill River and the water came in so rapidly that further descent was not practicable.
Mercer’s theory of the filling of the cave is expressed in these words, on his page 277:
“Enough had been seen to convince us that a fresh-water flood, rising to a level of from 15 to 20 feet above the present level of the hilltop, hence a general inundation of the whole surrounding country, bearing in its current the clay, stones, and earth of neighboring levels, had tumbled into the fissure, carrying with it the bones of creatures previously denuded of flesh and softened by decomposition.”
And further, on page 284:
“Not unreasonably, therefore, we may suppose, not only that the creatures had perished together, but also that they had perished on the spot or at the chasm—not meeting this fate during a long interval of time, and through a long series of chance tumbles, but suddenly and by force of a common event.”
Are we to suppose that during some summer freshet animals in such numbers were swept away that those that were found in the cave, and doubtless many more which decayed utterly, were only the relatively few that happened to pass over that 20–foot hole? Where, then, were picked up all the other animals that must have burdened the swollen Schuylkill? Or did it possibly happen that all the animals that were swept away were in some unaccountable manner directed into that hole? If the current was strong enough to sweep along stones up to 2 feet in diameter, how did it happen to deposit there fine sand and clay, leaves, cones, seeds, and sticks? It is difficult to accept the theory that the filling of the cave was due to a cataclysm such as has been invoked. It seems far more probable that the mouth of the cave was open for many hundreds of years, possibly thousands of them, so that animals, plants, stones, and fine and coarse earth could in various ways get into it. Animals wandering about might inadvertently fall in or be pushed in by the herd. Doubtless at some former time the Schuylkill flowed at a higher level than now, and during times of unusually high-water might have risen to the level of the mouth of the cave and carried into it at each rise some mud, some vegetation, and some animals. The filling was quite certainly a slow process.
To the writer the part of the cavern which was worked and pictured by Wheatley has all the marks of an enormous pot-hole, such as those which have been discovered at Cohoes, New York. While the latter appear to have been drilled out in late Pleistocene times, the Port Kennedy hole must have been fashioned during the early Pleistocene or even in the Pliocene. One may suppose that, after the pot-hole had reached the depth where the constriction was found, the water began to find its way out at the bottom through fissures or passages in the limestone. When this happened, the passages may have been enlarged mechanically or by means of solution, resulting in the formation of the various lower caverns. When the river had been lowered enough to reach only occasionally the mouth of the pot-hole, the latter became choked first by the coarse materials now found in subdivision 4, and afterwards by finer sand and mud.
Some vertebrates of the late Pleistocene or early Recent observed at Carlisle deserve consideration.
In 1850 (Proc. Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sci., vol. II, 1849, pp. 352–355) Professor S. F. Baird gave an account of his explorations in the caves in the region about Carlisle, Cumberland County. One of these caves was near Carlisle, and in it Baird found a large number of animal remains. A second cave, the situation of which was not given, was on the top of a hill and was a vertical shaft 30 feet deep, which opened into a large gallery. It furnished a skeleton of a bear, but this appeared to have only recently fallen into the cave. Another cave was on the bank of the Susquehanna, 0.5 mile below a railroad bridge. It was, therefore, probably near Harrisburg. The entrance was in limestone rock, nearly vertical, and 20 feet deep. Here Baird found many bones, embedded in mud, but of these he obtained only a few. Another cave, apparently nearby, which Baird spoke of as “the main cave,” furnished some of his specimens. Still another cave, probably in the same neighborhood, was the source of his most perfect specimens. This presented a series of galleries near the roof and these were reached by ladders. These galleries were filled with mud, and in this mud the bones were buried. The number of species which he obtained, he reported, was nearly twice the number living there at the present time. Of these fossil species he estimated that about 5 per cent were extinct. Baird appears never to have completed his study of his collection. His list designates the animals only by their vernacular names. The mammals consisted of panthers, lynxes, wolves, foxes, otters, bears, muskrats, deer, beavers, and rabbits. There were bird remains in great quantities, and these included wild turkeys, some of great size, swans, wild ducks, and pelicans. There appeared to be 8 or 10 species of tortoises. Bones of snakes were quite common; also scales and vertebræ of fishes, and a lower jaw of a salamander. In the uppermost 2 or 3 inches of mud were many relics of Indians.
Baird supposed that these bones had in most cases been washed in from above through sink holes. This collection, or some of it, was brought by Baird to the Smithsonian Institution; and they, or some of them, are in the collection of mammals; but the bulk of the collection has apparently been lost. All of these animals belong evidently to either the very late Pleistocene or to the Recent period.
A cave at Frankstown has furnished fossils of about Middle Pleistocene time. In 1908 (Ann. Carnegie Mus., vol. iv, pp. 228–233) and again in 1912 (Proc. Internat. Zool. Congr., Boston, 1907, pp. 748–752), Dr. W. J. Holland gave an account of the discovery of vertebrate fossils in a fissure in limestone rock at Frankstown, Blair County. This village is situated on the Frankstown Branch of Juniata River, a little more than 2 miles north of east of Hollidaysburg. The fissure was excavated in a Devonian rock known as the Lewistown limestone. The quarries are reported to be in the village and on the top of a hill that rises about 400 feet above the banks of the Juniata. According to the Hollidaysburg topographical sheet, the 920–foot line crosses the river just above the village. The highest hill, 1,260 feet above sea-level, is 0.3 mile away toward the northwest. In this hill, as Dr. Holland stated, there are several small caves. The one which furnished the fossils appeared to be about 40 feet in length, averaging from 6 to 8 feet in width, and at the most was not more than 10 or 12 feet high. The floor was about 30 feet below the top of the hill. The fissure appeared to have once continued up to the surface, but the opening had been filled with fallen blocks of limestone. The floor of the cave is described as being occupied by about 2 feet of red soil, everywhere traversed by bands and layers of dark materials charged with organic matter. With the finer deposits were mingled fragments of rock, some being large blocks. The fossil remains appear to have been carefully collected, but were mostly fragmentary. They were only cursorily studied at the time of Holland’s writing and nothing has since been published on them. The number of species obtained was estimated to be from 30 to 40. The following genera and species are mentioned:
After the foregoing had been put in type Mr. O. A. Peterson, of the Carnegie Museum, sent the writer a revised list in which additions are made. The following are the most important:
Besides these forms, remains belonging to bats, various birds, snakes, and batrachians have been recognized. Of the fossils identified generically or specifically those belonging to Megalonyx, Tapirus, Mylohyus, Cervalces, Mammut, and Arctotherium are certainly extinct. Probably, too, the bison and the species of Felis are extinct. There are, therefore, pretty certainly close to 50 per cent of the species which are no longer living. This percentage and the history of some of the genera make it improbable that the assemblage belongs to the Late Wisconsin stage. Some of them could hardly have been living during the Wisconsin, when the foot of the glacier was within 100 miles toward the northeast and northwest. On the other hand, there are no species or genera present which make it necessary to refer the collection to the first interglacial. The assemblage probably belongs to the middle Pleistocene.
Coming now to the very southwestern corner of the State, we find that. Elephas columbi has been met with in the bed of Hargus Creek, 3 miles above Rogersville, in Greene County (p. 150), and E. primigenius on Gray’s Fork of Ten Mile Creek, near Graysville (p. 133). In the Rogersville Folio (No. 146, U. S. Geol. Surv.), Dr. F. G. Clapp described the geology of this quadrangle. On his page 10 he briefly discussed the meager Quaternary deposits of the area. These he referred to the Carmichaels formation, and indicated his opinion that it belonged to very early Pleistocene. On the geological map it is represented as occurring along Ten Mile Creek at and just below Rogersville. The occurrence of a tooth of Elephas columbi just above this town and of E. primigenius just above Harveys (p. 133) renders it probable that other patches of the formation exist further up the stream and along some of its branches, and that the fossils were derived from that formation. It is, of course, possible that small patches of a later deposit exist there.
Reference has been made to the Carmichaels formation. The type locality is found at Carmichaels, on Muddy Creek in Washington County. The geological description of the locality has been presented by Marius R. Campbell in the Masontown-Uniontown Folio (No. 82, U. S. Geological Survey). The formation occurs extensively along Monongahela River and other streams of western Pennsylvania. For information the reader should consult the Geological Survey Folios Nos. 144, 146, 121, 82, and 177. The deposits occur at levels considerably above the present streams and are regarded as having been laid down in old and now abandoned river channels and in tributaries of these. The time when this occurred is believed by many, if not most geologists to belong to the early Pleistocene, the Kansas stage, or possibly the Nebraskan. In the opinion of some geologists the glacial ice dammed the streams and caused their valleys to be filled with detritus. More recent Pleistocene deposits, possibly of Wisconsin age, occur at lower levels in some places south of the Wisconsin moraine; and perhaps the age of some of them has not yet been recognized. When remains of vertebrate animals are discovered, it is of great importance to determine, if possible, the exact levels of their origin.
On another page mention is made of the finding of a tooth of Elephas primigenius at Lone Pine (p. 133), 7.25 miles south of southeast of Washington. This village is on Little Ten Mile Creek. No details of the discovery have been received. From Folio 144 of the U. S. Geological Survey it is learned that patches of the Carmichaels formation are found for several miles along Ten Mile Creek, near the southern boundary of the quadrangle. It seems probable that there may be patches of the same deposit along Little Ten Mile Creek, in the neighborhood of Lone Pine.
As detailed on page 70, a mastodon tooth was found many years ago about 1.5 miles south of the village of Hickory, Washington County, about twenty miles southwest of Pittsburgh. Westland Run empties into Chartiers Creek, and this into the Ohio at Pittsburgh. The geology of Burgettstown and Carnegie Quadrangles has been described by E. W. Shaw and M. J. Munn (Folio 177, U. S. Geol. Surv. 1911). No Pleistocene deposits are mapped on the stream mentioned; but just a little lower down, on Chartiers Creek, is a patch of the Carmichaels formation. Below Hickory somewhere there must be a Pleistocene deposit of some kind, and it is more probably early than late Pleistocene.
From the vicinity of Pittsburgh there have been reported remains of the mastodon (p. 69), of Elephas columbi (p. 150), and of an undetermined species of elephant (p. 168). Neither of the elephants is certainly determinable. The mastodon, represented by fragments of bones and teeth, is said to have been found in the river bank, at the junction of Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers. It is impossible to determine the Pleistocene stage to which any of these proboscidean remains belong. As shown on the geological map of the Carnegie Quadrangle (Folio 177, U. S. Geol. Surv.) there are indicated here Pleistocene deposits of early, intermediate, and late stages.
Little information is furnished by a mastodon reported found on Dicks 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).
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.
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.
Besides the Wisconsin drift which forms the surface deposit in Michigan, there are, according to present indications, one or more pre-Wisconsin drifts. Leverett (Monogr. LIII, p. 72) mentions several localities where what appears to be more indurated till is encountered, sometimes at a depth of 100 feet. Taylor (op. cit., pp. 289–290) states that “a till older than that deposited by the Wisconsin ice-sheet seems to underlie more or less continuously all of the later, or Wisconsin, drift in Indiana and the southern peninsula of Michigan.” Along the western shore of Lake Huron, north of Port Huron and along the streams, as reported by Taylor (p. 290), there are several exposures of Illinoian till, in some cases as much as 30 to 50 feet thick. In one case there is an old soil at the top of this till. In such old soils it may be possible to find fossil vertebrates of Sangamon or Peorian times, horses for example.
The fossil vertebrates found up to the present time in Michigan are not numerous in species or individuals; all appear to belong to the middle or late Wisconsin times. A peccary, Platygonus compressus, has been found at Belding, Ionia County (p. 215). Two musk-oxen have been discovered in the State. At Manchester, Washtenaw County, has been found a fine skull of Symbos cavifrons (p. 250). At Moorland, Muskegon County, was obtained a skull which has been called Boötherium sargenti.
Details regarding the mastodons which have been found in Michigan are given on pages 80 to 88. Only two localities in the State have furnished remains of Elephas primigenius. These are Three Oaks, Berrien County (p. 137), and Eaton Rapids, Eaton County (p. 137). Elephas columbi has been encountered only once in the State, as far as is known; this was in the northern part of Jackson County (p. 151).
Elephants belonging quite certainly to either E. primigenius or E. columbi, but for one reason or another not determined, have been found in four localities. These are East Saginaw, Saginaw County; Macomb County; Grand Ledge, Eaton County; and Buchanan, Berrien County. (See page 171.)
The giant beaver, Castoroides ohioensis, found a congenial home in the swamps of southern Michigan in the late Pleistocene. It has been met with somewhere in Berrien County; at Adrian, Lenawee County; at Ann Arbor, Washtenaw County; at Attica, Lapeer County; and at Owosso, Lapeer County (pp. 275–276).