Читать книгу The Pleistocene of North America and its vertebrated animals - Oliver Perry Hay - Страница 62
PENNSYLVANIA.
Оглавление(Map 5.)
1. Tunkhannock, Wyoming County.—In 1883 (2d Geol. Surv. Pennsylvania, G7, p. 20), Dr. I. C. White reported that the tusks and the teeth of a mastodon had been found at Tunkhannock. At the mouth of Tunkhannock Creek a large gravel deposit rises to a height of 125 feet above Susquehanna River and then spreads out into a wide plain. In the valley of the creek mentioned it takes the form of a sharp, low kame-like ridge of gravel and boulders. In such deposits the mastodon remains were found. According to White, these gravels and boulders were laid down in the waters which came from the retreating glacier and which deeply flooded all the streams. In case this explanation is the correct one, this mastodon lived there after the beginning of the retreat of the Wisconsin ice-sheet. Possibly, however, those gravels, at a height of 125 feet, belong to an older glacial stage.
White, on page 123 of his report quoted above, referred to a tusk which had been dug up in one of the streets of Tunkhannock. This was probably the one mentioned in connection with the teeth.
2. Pittston, Luzerne County.—Dr. Joseph Leidy, in 1873 (Ext. Vert. Fauna West. Terrs., p. 238, plate XXVIII, fig. 9), reported that there was in the Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia 3 first premolars of apparently as many individuals of Mammut americanum, which had been found at Pittston, associated with Equus major (E. complicatus) and Symbos sp. indet. (“Bison latifrons” of Leidy). One of these he figured. The present writer has examined these teeth. Two are upper antepenultimate milk molars (pm2), right and left; another is an upper penultimate milk molar, whose length is 45 mm. and whose width is nearly as much. They probably did not all belong to one individual. The geological age of these mastodons will be discussed on page 308.
3. Berwick, Columbia County.—The U. S. National Museum has a cast of a mastodon tooth sent there in 1904 by Professor A. U. Lesher. The tooth was an upper right last molar and only slightly worn. There were 4 crests and a very strongly developed talon. No details were furnished regarding the conditions under which it was discovered.
4. Reading, Berks County.—The collection of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia contains a lower left hindermost tooth of a mastodon and some fragments of one or two other teeth, said to have been found on Schuylkill River at Reading. These remains appear not to have been accompanied by any details regarding the manner of their burial.
5. Port Kennedy, Montgomery County.—Many remains of the mastodon have been found in the famous cave, or fissure, discovered at this place. The first accounts of these fossils were published in 1871 (Cope, Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc., vol. XII, pp. 15, 95; Wheatley, Amer. Jour. Sci., ser. 3, vol. I, pp. 235–237, 384–385). Cope (Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., ser. 2, vol. XI, pp. 193–267) presented the results of a thorough exploitation of the cave. For the nature of the remains of mastodon found there the papers mentioned may be consulted. A list of the associated fossils and a discussion of the geological features of the case will be found in its proper place on page 312.
6. Jackson Township, York County.—In the collection of the Academy at Philadelphia there is a lower left hindermost molar of a mastodon which is labeled as having been found in the township mentioned, but no details regarding the exact locality and kind of deposit were furnished. Jackson Township is situated in the west and northwestern part of York County.
7. Kishacoquillas Station, near Reedsville, Mifflin County.—In 1858 Professor H. D. Rogers (Geol. Pennsylvania, vol. I, p. 480) wrote that 4 grinders of a mastodon and a part of the skull had been found 3 miles southwest of Brown’s Mills on Kishacoquillas Creek. The remains rested on rounded pebbles and were covered with a few feet of alluvium. Professor Mosheim Swartzell, of Washington, D. C., informs the present writer that Brown’s Mills is located at the station Reedsville, and that the tooth must have been found near the station.
8. Chambersburg, Franklin County.—In 1806, Dr. B. S. Barton (Phila. Med. and Phys. Jour., vol. II, p. 157) recorded that a large grinder of Elephas americanus of Cuvier had been found in a field a few miles from Chambersburg. The tooth was evidently that of a mastodon.
9. Frankstown, Blair County.—Dr. W. J. Holland, in 1908 (Ann. Carnegie Mus., vol IV, p. 233), reported remains of young mastodons from a cave at the place named. They were associated with many other species of mammals, a list of which will be presented on pages 321, 322.
10. Bedford, Bedford County.—According to Cuvier (Oss. Foss., 4th ed., 1834, vol. II, p. 274), Mitchill mentioned that remains of a mastodon had been found at or near this place. The present writer has not seen Mitchill’s statement.
11. Pittsburgh, Allegheny County.—In 1876, Professor J. J. Stevenson (2d Geol. Surv. Pennsylvania, K, p. 22), reported that numerous fragments of bones and teeth had been found in the river bank at the junction of Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers. They were said to have been presented to a Pittsburgh high school.
12. Hickory, Washington County.—In 1875, Professor J. J. Stevenson (2d Geol. Surv. Pennsylvania, K, p. 22) reported that a mastodon tooth had been found in Mount Pleasant Township, in the county named. It was said to have been discovered on the high divide between Raccoon and Chartiers Creeks. The tooth is preserved at Washington and Jefferson College, at Washington, in the county of the same name. Professor Edwin Linton has informed the writer that the tooth was found about 1 or 1.5 miles southeast of Hickory. This indicates that it was found along Westland Run, probably about halfway down to the village of Westland. The geological position and possible age will be discussed on page 323.
13. Erie, Erie County.—In the Erie Public Museum the writer has seen a part of a lower right hindermost molar of a mastodon which is labeled as having been found long ago on what was called Frontier farm, about 2 miles west of the Public Library, below Eighth street and toward the lake. The discovery is credited to W. F. Leutzer. The locality would apparently be on Chase Creek, at an elevation of about 600 feet above sea-level, unless it had possibly been buried along the creek in some pre-Wisconsin formation. In lack of the information that ought to have been preserved it may be impossible to arrive at any certain conclusion. Mr. Clyde C. Hill, civil engineer, North East, Erie County, has informed the writer that Chase Creek flows through the old Frontier farm.