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(Map 3.)

1. Elroy, Van Buren County.—In 1831 (Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., ser. I, vol. VI, pp. 269–286, plates XII to XIV; 1835, Med. Phys. Res., pp. 319–331, plates XII to XV), Richard Harlan described a number of bones of Megalonyx jeffersonii which had been purchased for the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, and which he reported had been found in “White Cave,” Kentucky. This was supposed to be situated near Mammoth Cave. It was ascertained later that the bones had been found in Bigbone Cave, Van Buren County, Tennessee.

The bones mentioned by Harlan had belonged to a young animal and consisted of 5 vertebræ, a few fore-limb bones, a few hinder-limb bones, a scapula, a rib, and a part of a molar tooth. Some of the articulating surfaces still retained their cartilage. In the same cave were found bones of “Bos” (Bison), “Cervus” (Odocoileus?), Ursus, and a human metacarpal. These were said to have been found on the surface, while the megalonyx bones were buried at a depth of 2 or 3 feet. The mandible of the bear (Harlan, op. cit., p. 283) was described as displaying appearances of antiquity equal to that of the megalonyx bones. The sloth bones were made the basis of the name Megalonyx laqueatus. In 1855 (Smithson. Contrib. Knowl., vol. VII, art. 5, p. 4), Leidy determined that these bones belonged to M. jeffersonii. He wrote that the collection consisted of one molar tooth, four dorsal vertebræ, one lumbar, a left humerus lacking the upper epiphysis, the proximal two-thirds of the right ulna, the right radius, the left scapula, the distal epiphysis of the right femur, the left tibia, and the distal epiphysis of the right tibia, a right calcaneum, two claws of a hinder foot, and some fragments of ribs. Leidy appears to have concluded that these bones had been those of a young animal, but that other bones in the collection had belonged to adult individuals. He stated that they had come from Bigbone Cave, White County. This adjoins Van Buren on the north and possibly at that time included the latter; or Leidy may have been mistaken. Besides the bones above mentioned, Harlan described from this cave an ilium of Megalonyx (Med. and Phys. Res., p. 334).

In 1892 (Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., vol. III, pp. 121–123), Professor J. M. Safford reported the discovery of some bones of a megalonyx in Bigbone Cave. They had been met with in the bat manure at a depth of about 3 feet. The parts received by Professor Safford, and which are all probably in Vanderbilt University, were the skull, 17 vertebræ (including 5 sacrals), a fragment of a rib, a right scapula, a right humerus, the two ilia, a part of the right pubis, a part of the right ischium, and a left tibia. Safford concluded that these bones formed a part of the same young animal that Harlan had described.

In 1897 (Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc., vol. XXXVI, pp. 36–70), Dr. H. C. Mercer gave a detailed account of his explorations in this cave. It is situated about a mile from the left bank of Caney Fork River, a mile above the mouth of a confluent called Dry Branch, and at an elevation of about 1,000 feet above sea-level. It is excavated in Carboniferous limestone and opens into what is known as “Beech Cove.” Thomas L. Bailey (“Resources of Tennessee,” vol. VIII, pp. 131–132) described it as being situated 3.5 miles south of Quebeck, near the head of a hollow or cove extending south from McElroy’s store. The latter is probably the locality put down on the topographic sheet of the quadrangle as Elroy. It is further said to be one branch of an extensive cave whose other branch is known as Arch Cave. Bigbone Cave is known to extend a distance of 3 miles. It appears that the cave had been exploited for saltpeter in the wars of 1776, 1812, and 1863 and immense amounts of the nitrous earth had been removed. Mercer found no bones until he had reached a small passage at a distance of 900 feet from the entrance. Here he found an epiphysis of a left humerus, 6 vertebræ, an astragalus, and a calcaneum of a sloth, evidently a young animal; and he concluded that they were probably parts of the same animal that Harlan had described many years before; also a part of a skeleton that had been found there in 1884, which is the one described by Safford. A remarkable feature of the bones of the young animal found in this cave, as noted by Harlan, Leidy, and Mercer, is the presence of some of the cartilage, some shreds of ligaments, and a part of the horny sheath of one claw.

2. Lookout Mountain, Hamilton County.—In 1894 (Amer. Naturalist, vol. XXVIII, pp. 355–357), Dr. H. C. Mercer reported his work, done in 1893, in a cave situated on Lookout Mountain, near Chattanooga, Tennessee. In a brief report made June 4, 1896 (Dept. Amer. and Prehist. Archæol. Univ. Penn.), Mercer stated that this cave is on the left bank of Tennessee River, 0.25 mile below Chattanooga Creek. According to the report last quoted, the cave earth, “with its culture layer,” was removed by him to a distance of 58 feet from the entrance. According to the report of 1894, this was effected by digging 4 trenches, 6 feet 10 inches wide and with a depth of 3 feet, in two cases to rock bottom. Near the bottom of the deposit were found a jaw of Tapirus haysii with teeth, and a jaw of a small Mylodon, identified as such by Professor E. D. Cope. A bone of the extinct peccary appears to have been found higher up in the layer of refuse. In a letter received by the writer in 1919, Doctor Mercer stated that later Cope expressed some doubt regarding the identity of the bone supposed to belong to Mylodon.

A further reference to this cave and its contents will be found on page 396.

3. Memphis, Shelby County.—In 1850 (Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. III, p. 280; Amer. Jour. Sci., ser. 2, vol. X, p. 58), Jeffries Wyman reported that a tooth and a claw of Megalonyx jeffersonii had been found in the “diluvium” of Mississippi River at Memphis. The tooth is a first upper molar of large size; the claw is that of the median digit. With these were found remains of mastodon, beaver, and Castoroides ohioensis.

4. Nashville, Davidson County.—From Mr. William Edward Myer, Nashville, Tennessee, the writer has received for examination a fragment of a tooth of a mylodon which was found near Nashville, in sand or gravel, along Cumberland River, beneath 30 feet of gravel. This tooth appears to be the left lower penultimate molar of Mylodon harlani, but it is in some ways different. The antero-inner face has a broad, shallow groove, while the outer face makes a smaller angle with the inner hinder face than in the tooth figured by Leidy.

The transverse section resembles that of the lower penultimate molar of M. sulcidens Cope (Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc., vol. XXXIV, plate X, fig. 4a), and somewhat the tooth regarded by Cope as the upper fourth molar of M. sulcidens (op. cit., plate XI, fig. 7). It is probable that M. sulcidens and M. renidens of Cope are synonyms of M. harlani, as Stock (Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., vol. VIII, p. 331) is inclined to believe.

The greatest length of a cross-section of the tooth found at Nashville is 27 mm.; the greatest width 14 mm. The tooth is the property of Mr. H. L. Ridge, of Nashville.

At the same locality have been found remains of Equus leidyi, E. complicatus, Mammut americanum, a camel (Camelops?), a species of deer, and some turtle bones. The deposit seems to belong to a stage not far removed from the Aftonian.