Besides the species enumerated, the early collectors found remains which were identified as belonging to such domestic animals as the dog, ox, sheep, and hog. Leidy rejected these as Pleistocene species, while Holmes and Agassiz accepted them as such. Possibly the supposed dog was in reality a wolf and the supposed ox a bison. Small teeth like those of cows are fossilized as are the teeth of extinct animals. At Bee’s Ferry on Ashley River the fossiliferous bed has a thickness of 3.5 feet and is at about high-water mark. It is overlain by from 15 to 20 feet of loose sands.
By far the most of the species have been entered in the list on the authority of Joseph Leidy. Only F. S. Holmes reported the elk (Cervus canadensis), and the writer has seen two teeth of the species at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia credited to Charleston. Holmes also reported Glyptodon, but that is not included in the list. Lynx ruffus, Ursus americanus, Hydrochœrus pinckneyi, Elephas imperator, Bison latifrons, Alces runnymedensis, Camelops sp., and Equus littoralis are included on the evidence of specimens seen by the writer in the Charleston Museum or in some of the other collections made on the coast of South Carolina. Loomis has recently (Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. XLV, 1918, p. 438) described a specimen of Mammut progenium (as Mastodon americanus) from near Charleston and another from near Beaufort.
Alces runnymedensis was first briefly referred to in Year Book No. 14 of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1915 (1916), page 387. The name is based on an upper right hindermost milk molar in the Charleston Museum (No. 13534). It is the property of Mr. Charles C. Pinckney. Where the tooth was found is not known, but it was somewhere near Charleston, in the phosphate-bearing area. The specific name is that of the estate of the owner. The tooth closely resembles the corresponding one of Alces americanus, but is larger and has a flatter crown. Only the crown of the tooth is preserved, and of this a part of the enamel of the inner anterior cone is broken off; otherwise it is in fine condition. The color is very black. The following measurements are given of this tooth and of the corresponding one of Alces americanus, No. 117055 of the U. S. Biological Survey. The two teeth are only slightly worn.
| Measurements of milk molars of Alces, in millimeters. | ||
|---|---|---|
| Dimensions taken. | A. americanum. | A. runnymedensis. |
| Length of tooth near outer border | 24.0 | 25.5 |
| Length of tooth at middle width | 21.5 | 23.0 |
| Width of tooth along front border | 23.0 | 23.0 |
| Width of tooth from median style to base of inner hinder cone | 21.0 | 24.0 |
The angle between the outer and inner faces of the hinder half of the tooth is 54° in the tooth of the existing species, 64° in the fossil tooth. On the grinding-surface the fossettes are wider than in the tooth of the existing moose.
It is interesting to find this moose in the region about Charleston. We must suppose that it lived there during one of the glacial stages, probably when the walrus occupied that part of the coast.
In the Pinckney collection is a tooth of a capybara that deserves attention. A figure of it is here presented (fig. 18), a side view. Exactly where the tooth was found is not known, but it was somewhere in the vicinity of Charleston. The tooth is the upper left hindermost molar. In the figure the front end is directed toward the left hand. There are present 17 plates. None of the plates either in front or behind are missing. The free edges of the plates are not turned backward. The length of the tooth is 62 mm., the width is 17.5, the height of the plates on the inner face 37 mm., but probably the less calcified bases of the plates have been destroyed.
Fig. 18.—Side view of upper last molar of Hydrochœrus pinckneyi from Charleston, S. C. ×1. Type.
On the grinding-surface the plates run obliquely from the inside outward and backward. As seen on the inner face, the plates, as they pass to the grinding-surface, lean backward. The corresponding tooth of a capybara from Surinam has a length of 37 mm. The length of its skull from foramen magnum to the front of the snout is 215 mm. In case the skull of the fossil was long in proportion to the length of the tooth, the length as given above would be 360 mm., about 15 inches.
To this fine large species I give the name Hydrochœrus pinckneyi, in honor of Mr. Charles C. Pinckney, the owner of a collection of fossils from the region about Charleston and the proprietor of the estate of Runnymede, near Lambs, South Carolina.
In the same collection is a part of the lower jaw, right side, of a rather large wolf. In this jaw there remain the complete fourth premolar, the roots of the third premolar, and one root of the second (fig. 19).
The following measurements are taken from the fragment mentioned; from the corresponding part of a jaw of Ænocyon dirus, No. 8307, from La Brea, California; from the gray wolf, Canis occidentalis, from Fort Simpson, British America, No. 9001, U. S. National Museum; and from the type of C. floridanus, in the U. S. National Museum.
| Measurements of jaws and teeth of wolves, in millimeters. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parts measured. | Charleston jaw. | La Brea jaw. | C. occidentalis jaw. | C. floridanus type. |
| Height of jaw in front of pm4 | 28 | 32 | 33 | 21.5 |
| Thickness at front of pm4 | 14 | 16 | 14.2 | 10.2 |
| Length of pm4 | 18.5 | 20.2 | 18.5 | 14.5 |
| Thickness of hinder lobe of pm4 | 9.5 | 11 | 9.5 | 7 |
| Thickness of front lobe | 8.5 | 9.8 | 8.5 | 6.4 |
The measurements show that the fossil is much too large to belong to the wolf now inhabiting Florida. It appears also to be too small to belong to the wolf Ænocyon dirus, and A. ayersi was but little if any smaller. The lower teeth of the latter species are not known. The accordance in measurements with those of C. occidentalis makes it probable that the fossil jaw found at Charleston belonged to a wolf not greatly different. With the materials at hand it is impossible to refer the jaw specifically.
Fig. 19.-Part of the right side of the lower jaw of an undetermined species of wolf, showing premolar. Charleston, S. C. ×1.
Within the city of Charleston the bed bearing vertebrate fossils is said to be several feet below tide-level. At Young Island, Wadmalaw Sound, nearly 20 miles southwest of Charleston, the top of the fossil-bearing stratum is at tide-level. This locality is otherwise known in the literature as Simmons’s. The only Pleistocene vertebrate fossils that the writer finds reported from the place are the fishes Lepisosteus osseus and Trichiurus lepturus.
In the region about Beaufort, the same fossil-bearing stratum, having about the same composition and the same elevation, is met with in many places. A few species of fossil vertebrates and many invertebrates have been secured. Here have been found Mammut americanum (p. 118), Elephas columbi (p. 155), Equus complicatus (p. 191), and Megalonyx jeffersonii (p. 35).
A brief notice will be taken of the few known localities where, away from the immediate coast, vertebrate fossils have come to light.
Tuomey, in 1848 (Rep. Geol. South Carolina, p. 177), in describing marls found near Darlington, on the farm of G. W. Dargan, and which he regarded as belonging to the Pliocene, reported the discovery of two perfect molars of a mastodon (p. 118). The locality was in a swamp, and the bed of marl was covered with 3 or 4 feet of black mud. The teeth were immediately below the mud and enveloped in the marl. These teeth belonged to Mammut americanum and had been deposited at some time during the Pleistocene. At another place fragments of the antlers of a deer were found in the marl. In such cases the marls formed at one time the surface of the ground, or more probably the bottom of a swamp; and the Pleistocene bones and teeth might have been trampled down into the marl by living animals. On page 119 is given an account of another mastodon tooth discovered in the same county; and the teeth of a horse have been reported as having been found, associated with those of the mastodon (see p. 193).
In Lee County, adjoining Darlington County on the southwest, at a locality “near Concord church,” between Lynch’s Creek and Black River, Tuomey (op. cit., p. 178) found a bed of Pliocene marl about 4 feet thick. From an excavation in this marl had been taken a tusk which Tuomey regarded as that of a mastodon, but this may have belonged to an elephant. In Berkeley County, at the head of Cooper River, there is, or was, a morass known as Biggin Swamp. This was passed through in constructing the Santee Canal. On page 156 is an account of the discovery of remains of Elephas columbi and of Mammut americanum; on page 162, the finding of a tooth of Elephas imperator. The discovery of the latter marks the age of the deposits as being about that of the Aftonian interglacial.
It has been seen that at many points along the coast there is a fossiliferous stratum varying from 2 to 8 feet. At most localities the fossils consist principally of marine animals, especially mollusks, and the deposits have evidently been laid down in salt water. Along Ashley River and at some localities in the region about Beaufort it seems evident that the surface was above, but not far above, sea-level, and that it formed a swamp on which a great variety of land animals could move about and feed. After death their bones would suffer the fate which befalls them in such cases. Most of them would undergo decay. Parts would be trampled into the muck, broken into fragments, and undergo still further decay. Only the most durable parts, as the teeth, antlers, and the more solid bones would usually stand a chance for preservation. Apparently, on this coast, no considerable parts of one skeleton have ever been found, or at least reported. In Charleston Museum are many bones of a skeleton of Megatherium, but it is uncertain where it was found.
The list of vertebrates referred to the Pleistocene of the South Carolina coast contains 33 species of mammals, of which 24 appear to be extinct. This high proportion of extinct species seems to confirm our reference of the fauna to the early Pleistocene. Besides the extinct forms, it is to be noted that within historical times the muskrat, beaver, and elk have not lived in the region about Charleston.
Pugh (Pleist. Deposits S. C., p. 66), from a study of the Pleistocene marine mollusca of South Carolina, has concluded that, if the Pleistocene sea-temperature differed at all from that of the present, it was slightly higher rather than slightly lower. It must be remembered, however, that the Pleistocene represented a very long period of time and that, farther north, the climate underwent great fluctuations. That these fluctuations would not have affected the temperature of the sea along the coast of the Carolinas is not probable. It is hardly supposable that capybaras and manatees lived about Charleston at the same time that the moose and the walrus were there. The latter had been forced down there during some glacial stage, possibly the Wisconsin; while the horses, tapirs, elephants, manatees, the mylodon, and the megatherium had their existence, we may suppose, about the time of the Aftonian. During this stage, too, lived the species of mollusks which Pugh has elaborated. It would seem that after that time some change took place in conditions, probably a slight elevation, so that little more than beds of unfossiliferous sand and marls were deposited.
Professor Earle Sloan, in his “Mineral Localities of South Carolina” (Bull. No. 2, ser. IV., South Carolina Geol. Surv.), has recognized the following divisions in the marine Pleistocene of the State:
Of these, the fossiliferous deposits referred to above appear to belong to the Wadmalaw marl. It may be confidently expected that somewhere along the South Carolina coast, beneath the beds bearing the vertebrate fossils, there will yet be discovered other Pleistocene deposits, probably shell marls, which belong to the Nebraska stage.
The only part of Georgia at present of interest to the student of vertebrate palæontology is that which lies immediately along the Atlantic coast and along a few of the larger rivers. The northwestern corner of the State is mountainous and probably contains little or no Pleistocene. The Coastal Plain extends landward to a line which starts at Augusta, on Savannah River, passes through Milledgeville and Macon, and ends at Columbus, on the Chattahoochee. A large part of this region is mantled by a deposit resulting from the decay of the underlying rocks. These deposits are of uncertain age, a part belonging probably to the Pleistocene, but the large part to the Pliocene or to still older Tertiary. The Pleistocene has not yet been differentiated from the remainder, and, in any case, has furnished no vertebrate fossils. For information on the subject the reader may consult McGee (12th Ann. Rep. U. S. Geol., Surv., pt. I, pp. 478–484), Spencer (Geol. Surv. Georgia, 1890–91, pp. 61–81), and Veatch and Stephenson (Bull. 26, Geol. Surv., Georgia, pp. 400–456).
The deposits in Georgia which can with certainty be referred to the Pleistocene form a broad belt lying along the coast and extending landward a distance of about 30 miles along Savannah River and about 60 miles at the Florida boundary line. For a description of these deposits the reader is referred to Veatch and Stephenson’s article in Bulletin 26 just mentioned, pages 424–456. These deposits are disposed in two terraces, a higher and older and a lower and younger. The older is named the Okefenokee formation, the younger the Satilla formation. The positions of these may be observed in the figure here presented, taken from Bulletin 26 above referred to (fig. 20).
The Okefenokee terrace has a breadth of 20 to 40 miles and an elevation of 60 to about 125 feet above sea-level. It forms a plain which Veatch and Stephenson describe as in general flat and almost featureless. It is dotted with cypress ponds and swamps, with here and there low ridges and hills of sand. Along the larger streams which cross the plain are found terraces supposed to have been laid down while the Okefenokee terrace was forming; they extend far back into the State. In neither the main terrace nor the fluviatile terraces have any fossils been found, except a little silicified wood.
Fig. 20.—The Coastal Plain of Georgia. Adapted from Veatch.
The Satilla Plain extends backward from the coast 20 to 30 miles and varies in elevation from 15 to 40 feet. On the landward side it ends in an escarpment which is taken, by the authors quoted, to be an old sea-beach. Along the large rivers it is continued as a series of terraces occupying a lower position than those of Okefenokee time. According to Veatch and Stephenson, this formation consists of unconsolidated clays, sands, and thin layers of gravel. The thickness averages about 15 feet, but may become as much as 45 or 50 feet.
The Satilla deposits are fossiliferous. At various places, at some distance from the coast, sea-shells occur, especially shells of oysters. This shows that at times the plain, or at least some parts of it, has been under sea-water. Bones and teeth of vertebrate animals have been discovered at several localities, but at only two places have identifiable materials been secured. The region about Brunswick and that just south of Savannah have furnished important collections of vertebrate animals.
During the years 1838 and 1839 an attempt was made to construct a canal to connect Altamaha River with Turtle River at Brunswick. Some bones of large mammals were met with and came to the notice of Hamilton Couper, and through him became known to the scientific world. The most striking was the great ground-sloth, of the genus Megatherium, and which Leidy afterwards called Megatherium mirabile. At a more recent time, during dredging operations, probably in the harbor, other remains were found and turned over to the Geological Survey of Georgia. The fragmentary bones and teeth were identified by Mr. J. W. Gidley (Bull. No. 26, Geol. Surv. Georgia, p. 436).
The fragments of teeth regarded by Gidley as belonging to Mammut floridanum appear to the writer to represent Gomphotherium rugosidens, a species rather common in that region and belonging to the upper Miocene or Lower Pliocene. Four teeth identified as those of Physeter vetus or Physeterula neolassicus appear to be identical with Leidy’s Orycterocetus quadratidens; but this may be possibly the same as Physeterula neolassicus (=P. dubusi). It, too, is older than the Pleistocene. From the two collections have been determined the following list:
With the bones found in the canal was a femur 13 inches long, which Harlan described as Chelonia couperi, but which resembles more closely that of some edentate mammal. Gidley stated that the shark-teeth probably represent Eocene and Miocene species. This may be true, but the supposition is not necessary, inasmuch as species of all three genera are yet living on our Atlantic coast.
J. Hamilton Couper (Hodgson’s Memoir, pp. 37–40) has given an account of the topography and geology of the region through which the Brunswick Canal was being constructed (map 40). On one of the plates of the work is a section from the ocean westward 21 miles. About 10 miles west of St. Simon’s Island the canal passed through Six-mile Swamp. This is connected at its northern end with Altamaha River, at the southern with Turtle River. The swamp has thus the appearance of a lake which has become filled with alluvial deposits. These consist of a compact clay, usually yellow and impregnated with iron. There are thin strata of soft, chalky marl and many fragments of petrified wood. At the bottom of this deposit were found the bones of Megatherium, Elephas, Mammut, Equus, and Bison. Beneath the clay stratum was sand with marine shells. Overlying the clay was a thin stratum of vegetable and sandy loam. The bones occurred at a depth of from 4 to 6 feet. In no instance, except when they had been washed out into the salt-water creek, was there any abrasion of the surface or incrustation of marine shells.
The geologist Charles Lyell (Second Visit, etc., vol. I, p. 347) stated that part of a skeleton of a megatherium, dug out in cutting the canal, was so near the surface that it was penetrated by the roots of a pine tree. As a considerable number of the bones of one skeleton were found together, Lyell supposed that a whole carcass had been floated down the river to the spot.
Even before remains of fossil vertebrates had been found at Brunswick, bones had been discovered at Skidaway Island, near Savannah. As early as 1823, S. L. Mitchill (Ann. N. Y. Lyc. Nat. Hist., vol. I, p. 58) announced the finding of teeth of Megatherium at this place. More than 20 bones of the same animal were reported from the same locality in 1824 by William Couper. In 1846 (Hodgson’s “Memoir on Megatherium,” pp. 25–30), Dr. Joseph Habersham published a list of the species discovered up to that time. Lyell (Second Visit, etc., vol. I, p. 313) gave an account of his visit to the locality and noted the species obtained. The following list appears to contain all found there:
The box-tortoise Terrapene canaliculata was described by the writer in 1907 (Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. XXIII, p. 850, figs. 5–7) on fragmentary materials found in the U. S. National Museum. These had been sent there by Dr. J. P. Scriven, who had been active in collecting the fossil vertebrates about Savannah. Whether the remains of this box-tortoise were found on Skidaway Island or in Whitemarsh Island is uncertain.
Besides these species, found on Skidaway island, two species, Mammut americanum and Mylodon harlani, have been found at Heyner’s (or Hainer’s) Bridge. This is about 7 miles south of Savannah, where the road crosses Vernon Creek (Lyell, “Travels in North America,” vol I, pp. 163–164). Here the stream is called White Bluff Creek. In order that the reader may get a clear understanding of the conditions at this important locality, a map found in Hodgson’s Memoir is reproduced (map 40).
The whole region south of Savannah, between the mouths of Savannah and Ogeechee Rivers, is low and much divided into islands by streams connected with the rivers mentioned. A considerable part of these islands consists of marshes, which are usually overflowed by the tides. Most of the fossil bones were found along the southern bank of Skidaway River, in two places, apparently about 0.5 mile apart and near the western end of the island. On the map Hodgson has named the locality Fossilossa. Here Skidaway River made a bend which caused the bank to be eroded away, thus exposing the bones. According to Couper (Hodgson’s Memoir, p. 40), the bones were embedded in the marsh formation at about the level of very low-water. Lyell (Second Visit, etc., vol. I, p. 314) stated that the bones occurred in a dark peaty soil, or marsh mud, above which was a stratum of sand 3 or 4 feet thick; while below the peaty soil and below sea-level was sand containing many marine fossil shells, all belonging to species yet living on the neighboring coast.
The authors quoted state that at various places along the Georgia coast are found stumps of trees, cypress, cedar, and pine, in the deposits of the salt marshes and at a depth of from 2 to 4 feet below high-water. This is taken as evidence of subsidence in that region.
It is a matter of importance to know how those animal remains reached their place of burial. It has been suggested that whole carcasses had been floated down the streams and sunken where the bones are found. This is possible, but not probable. The peaty nature of the deposit inclosing the bones appears to be opposed to this view; nor could disarticulated bones have been washed down far from above, for they show no signs of attrition. The most probable explanation is that these animals lived and died about where their bones were discovered. At some past time the surface stood at a higher level than at present, although low enough to be more or less marshy. It probably supported a dense forest growth, and hither the species listed above resorted, with many others not yet discovered.
The animals inhabiting the region represent the same fauna found at so many places in Florida and Texas. The writer believes that they existed during the early part of the Pleistocene, approximately during the Aftonian interglacial; and that some of the species, as Megatherium, Mylodon, Equus, and Tapirus haysii became extinct before the advent of the Wisconsin glacial stage, probably a long time before this.
For the most recent descriptions of the geology of Florida one must consult the Annual Reports of the Florida Geological Survey, issued by the State geologist, Dr. E. H. Sellards, and Water supply Paper 319 of the U. S. Geological Survey, prepared by George C. Matson and Samuel Sanford and published in 1913. In the latter work are two large maps, one representing the topography of the State and the distribution of the various geologic formations; the other presents a generalized view of the distribution of Pleistocene terraces, as recognized by Matson and Sanford. The Second Annual Report of the Florida Geological Survey contains a map similar to the first mentioned.
From these maps it will be seen that the surface of Florida is largely occupied by Pleistocene deposits. According to Matson and Sanford, these deposits present themselves as disposed mostly in three principal terraces; and these are believed to indicate that the State was at one time largely submerged beneath the sea and that its present condition was attained after three principal upward movements. As shown on plate V of the geologists just named, the northern half of the peninsula at the time of greatest depression was represented by a number of islands, two of considerable size. One of these was situated at the northern end of the peninsula, the other near its center. The materials laid down around these islands and bordering the dry land along the northern border of the western half of the State form what is called the Newberry terrace. Its surface stands now at a height varying from 70 to somewhat more than 100 feet above sea-level. A second elevation exposed the deposits which, at least in part, constitute the next terrace, the Tsala Apopka. Its surface is a plain having an elevation of 40 to 60 feet above sea-level. At this stage the islands of the peninsula had coalesced, and the dry land extended southward nearly to the present Lake Okeechobee. A broad belt along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, now dry land, was still occupied by salt water. A third elevation of the land left exposed the lowest terrace, the Pensacola, that bordering the Atlantic and Gulf coasts and including the southern end of the peninsula somewhat farther north than Lake Okeechobee. The elevation of this terrace varies from that of sea-level up to about 40 feet.
The materials composing the terraces in Florida are principally sand with local deposits of clays. In the southern part of the State important beds of limestone are found in the Pensacola terrace. These beds are shown on Matson and Stanford’s geological map. At St. Augustine and along the coast southward are beds of sea-shells cemented into coquina. Where cementation has not occurred there are beds of loose shells and of marl and sand.
The writer has already (p. 346) expressed his opinion regarding the Coastal Plain terraces found in the States farther north. He finds in Florida nothing to contradict, but much to confirm, that opinion. Whatever may be the origin of Newberry and Tsala Apopka terraces, they were not laid down in salt water. From the descriptions of the deposits there the stratification and the alternation of the materials do not exist that one might expect; but, above all, there seem to be no marine fossils to attest to the presence of the sea. In Florida, too, here and there over these higher lands there are found, in place of marine fossils, the remains of many extinct land animals, as mastodons, elephants, horses, ground-sloths, and the like.
As regards the Pensacola terrace, there are found at its base, within a few feet above or below sea-level, deposits containing remains of such animals as have just been mentioned, besides many others. Often the state of preservation of these remains and the condition of their burial are such that we must conclude that the animals lived and died on the spot. Furthermore, these animals constitute an assemblage corresponding to that found in western Iowa, in Nebraska, and in Oregon, which are believed to have existed during the first interglacial stage. It corresponds also to that met with under similar conditions and at the same level at Savannah, at Charleston, at Brunswick, and at Long Branch. In most cases, too, this fossiliferous stratum is overlain with very scant deposits. By some geologists and palæontologists the animals are regarded as belonging to the Pliocene.
If the reference of the fossil vertebrates mentioned is not wholly wrong, it follows that the lowest terrace or plain along the coast was not laid down late in the Pleistocene, but at an early stage, and the higher plains must have been formed at still earlier times.
At Vero, as will be shown on page 382, a large assemblage of fossil vertebrates has been secured. The bed furnishing the oldest fossils, those of the bed known as No. 2 and believed to be of about first interglacial age, is underlain by a bed of marine shells, also of Pleistocene age. This bed is regarded by Dr. E. H. Sellards as being equivalent to the coquina which is so well known at St. Augustine; and the same formation is found here and there along both coasts of the peninsula (Matson and Sanford, op. cit., p. 192). Probably not all deposits that are called coquina are of the same age, but the deposits in question pass, on the landward side, beneath the deposits which bear vertebrate fossils. The bed at Vero, No. 2, must have been laid down after an uplift had brought above sea-level the bed of shells No. 1, on which No. 2 reposes; that is, between the time of deposition of No. 1 and No. 2 there must have elapsed a considerable interval of time. The shell deposit, therefore, probably belongs to the first glacial epoch, the Nebraskan. Inasmuch as a similar vertebrate fauna is found on both the eastern and the western coasts of the peninsula, it follows that any Pleistocene deposits underlying these vertebrate-bearing beds belongs to the Nebraskan stage; in places these have great thickness. Matson and Sanford (op. cit., pp. 194–195) concluded that the maximum thickness of the Pleistocene in southern Florida, disregarding the sandhills, is probably about 125 feet. Even if it were a matter of importance to determine in or on which terraces the vertebrate fossils are found, it would not always be easy to do so. The majority of specimens have been discovered around the coasts of the State, and therefore in deposits referred to the youngest terrace. In other cases it is difficult to determine the terrace in which fossils are buried, partly because of imperfect records as regards locality, kind of deposits, and depth of burial, partly because each terrace extends up the river valleys beyond its general border. The various fossil-bearing localities will therefore be taken up by counties, beginning at the western end of the State and ending at the southern end.
Jackson County.—As already recorded on page 121, a tooth of Mammut americanum has been found at Marianna. No details have been recorded. The Newberry terrace extends nearly or quite to this town. If it could be shown that this tooth had been buried in that terrace when it was formed, it would probably have to be referred to the time of the first glacial stage.
Gadsden County.—It appears that no vertebrate remains belonging to the Pleistocene have been found in this county, except a tooth of Mammut americanum (p. 157) which was discovered somewhere in Little River.
Wakulla County.—On page 157 the finding of a tooth of Elephas columbi somewhere along St. Marks River has been mentioned; also the discovery of a part of a skeleton of either a mastodon or an elephant somewhere about Wakulla Springs.
Columbia County.—A mastodon tooth has been found in this county 3 miles northwest of Fort White (p. 121). To which terrace it belonged or what is its place in Pleistocene time it is impossible to say.
Nassau County.—At Stokes Ferry have been found some teeth of an extinct horse (p. 194), a fragment of a tooth of an elephant (p. 180) and some ear-bones of a whale. Veatch and Stephenson (Bull. 26, Geol. Surv. Georgia, p. 394) report that these appeared to come from either the Charlton formation or the Satilla. If the Charlton really belongs to the Pliocene it is not probable that the fossils were derived from it; if they were derived from the Satilla, they do not belong to late Pleistocene.
Duval County.—On page 106 of the Eighth Annual Report of the Florida Geological Survey, Sellards reported the finding of remains of Mammut americanum (p. 122), Elephas columbi (p. 157), an undetermined species of Bison (p. 262), and an undetermined species of Odocoileus (p. 232), near Pablo Beach, at station 120 on the Inland Waterway Canal. Here, too, has been discovered a bone of Trachemys? nuchocarinata. Sellards stated that the position of the beds here is the same as that of the other localities along the Atlantic coast, the fossils being found in sand and muck which rest upon Pleistocene shell-marl. The locality is, of course, on the youngest terrace; but that, in the opinion of the writer, belongs to the early Pleistocene.
St. John’s County.—At a place 28 miles south of St. Augustine, along the Inland Waterway Canal, Mr. Fred P. Allen, of St. Augustine, collected on the Almero farm remains of Mammut americanum (p. 122), Elephas columbi (p. 158), Mylodon harlani? (p. 37), Equus sp. indet. (p. 194), the box-tortoise Terrapene antipex, and a dermal plate of perhaps Alligator mississippiensis. These were found in the banks of the canal. Here, at least, the horse and the mylodon, taking into consideration the geological circumstances, indicate early Pleistocene, equivalent to the first interglacial stage.
Levy and Alachua Counties.—Geologically these counties furnish important localities because of the presence of the Alachua clays (usually referred to the lower Pliocene or even the Upper Miocene) and deposits belonging to all three of the Pleistocene terraces, Newberry, Tsala Apopka, and Pensacola. The Alachua clays first require consideration, for in them have been found a considerable number of species of vertebrates which usually indicate Pleistocene deposits. The localities where Alachua clays have furnished vertebrate fossils, as indicated on Matson and Sanford’s map (Water Supply Paper 319, U. S. Geol. Surv., plate I), are situated, one around Archer, Alachua County (the type locality), second, about 5 miles west of Williston, in Levy County, and a third about 5 miles east of Newberry, in Alachua County.
The clays referred to form accumulations in depressions on the surface of the Ocala limestone, itself belonging to the Eocene. The deposits are said to average in depth about 10 feet, but are often thinner and occasionally much thicker. They have furnished a considerable number of species of vertebrates. A list, prepared by Dr. Leidy, of those found at Archer was published in 1892, in Bulletin 84 of the U. S. Geological Survey, on page 129. Besides these, Leidy had previously reported a tapir, a small crocodile or alligator, and a bone thought to belong to the extinct Cervus americanus (Cervalces scotti?), but which was not afterward mentioned. The rhinoceroses and the camels were described by Leidy and Lucas in 1896 (Trans. Wagner Free Inst., vol. IV, pp. 1–61 with plates).
Herewith is presented a list of such vertebrates as have been found at Archer. It appears necessary to retain for the rhinoceroses the specific names given them by Leidy.
The following vertebrates have been collected east of Williston, in the place mentioned in Dall’s report of 1892, on page 129, as Mixon’s:
The list from the locality east of Newberry (Hallowell’s place of Dall’s report) is rather short. Equus littoralis, Odocoileus osceola?, Hipparion sp. indet., and Parahippus sp. indet. have been reported (Rep. Florida Geol. Surv., vol. V, p. 58; vol. VIII, pp. 42, 94). At Neals, Alachua County. Tapirus terrestris?, Gomphotherium floridanum, and Hipparion sp. indet. have been collected (Sellards as cited). At Juliette, same county, Gomphotherium floridanum has been secured, and at Hernando the same species; also Hipparion sp. indet. and Procamelus sp. indet. (Sellards Florida Geol. Surv., vol. V, p. 58). Along Santa Fe River, in the Buttgenbach mines, 6 miles north of Wade, have been found teeth of Equus and a tooth of Bison.
At Dunnellon, about 25 miles south of Williston, from the phosphate mines along the Withlacoochee River, have been obtained fossil vertebrates so similar to those found in the Alachua clays that Sellards concluded to unite his Dunnellon formation and the Alachua clays into one to be called the Alachua formation (6th Ann. Rep. Florida Geol. Surv., p. 161). The list of vertebrates found at and about Dunnellon is as follows, including the species dredged in Withlacoochee River:
The species marked by an asterisk are regarded by Doctor Sellards and others as belonging to the Miocene or Pliocene (8th Ann. Rep. Florida Geol. Surv., p. 94). See also Sellards, 1913 (5th Ann. Rep. Florida Geol. Surv., p. 58; 8th Rep., p. 104).
On the basis of the fossil vertebrates it can hardly be denied that the Alachua clays and the phosphate mines at Dunnellon are of the same geological age. According to Sellards, the formation belongs to the upper Miocene or to the lower Pliocene. Merriam (Bull. Dept. Geol. Univ. Cal., vol. X, p. 439) refers it to the Pliocene. Although there is present a strong palæontological element which represents the Pleistocene, the reference of the formation to the late Miocene or early Pliocene has seemed to be required by the presence of Gomphotherium, Procamelus, Teleoceras, and Hipparion. The Pleistocene species are usually accounted for on the supposition that they are intrusions from more recent deposits.
A figure from Sellards (Geol. Surv. Florida, vol. VII, p. 53), only slightly modified is intended to show the relation of the phosphate-bearing formations to those underlying them (fig. 21).
It is worth our while to consider whether or not the reference of the Alachua formation to the Miocene or early Pliocene is required by palæontological evidence. Gomphotherium is characterized by having molar teeth which on abrasion at one or both ends of each crest, present a trefoil pattern of the enamel; also by having a band of enamel on each of the upper tusks. Now, teeth having the same structure are not uncommon in deposits of undoubted Pleistocene age in Kansas and Texas. That the animals possessing these teeth had tusks with enamel bands is not known, but it is quite possible that such enamel bands were present.