GEORGIA.
(Map [26].)
1. Brunswick, Glynn County.—Remains of an undetermined species of Bison were found at the time of excavating the Brunswick Canal, south of Darien, in 1838–39. In a communication to the Academy of Natural Sciences (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., vol. I, pp. 216–217), Mr. J. Hamilton Couper gave an account of the geology of the locality and mentioned the fact that remains of Megatherium, Elephas primigenius, Mastodon giganteus, Hippopotamus, horse, Bos, and Sus americana had been secured. As was later determined by Owen (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1848, p. 93), the supposed hippopotamus incisor was a lower tusk of a mastodon. Sus americana was referred by Owen to his genus Harlanus; but was afterwards found to belong to Bison. Owen (Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., ser. 2, vol. I, p. 20, plate VI) described and furnished an excellent figure of the jaw. The jaw is now in the collection of the Academy of Sciences at Philadelphia. Measurements show that it is larger than the jaw of Bison bison, corresponding well with the other bones of Bison found at the same place. Leidy regarded it as belonging to B. latifrons; but he used this name in a very wide sense. In the Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia is a part of the right ramus of the lower jaw labeled “Bison latifrons, Darien canal, Ga.” The teeth are badly worn. The jaw itself is larger than that of Bison bison. The following measurements were taken:
| Measurements of bison jaws, in millimeters. | ||
|---|---|---|
| B. latifrons. | B. bison. | |
| Height of jaw just behind third molar | 91 | 83 |
| Thickness of jaw just behind third molar | 36 | 32.5 |
| Height of jaw in front of third molar | 63 | 52 |
| Thickness of jaw in front of third molar | 31 | 29 |
The jaw has the appearance of being much more massive than that of B. bison.
In his work on the “Extinct Species of American Ox” (Smiths. Contrib. Knowl., vol. V, p. 11), Leidy stated that Couper had presented to the Academy in Philadelphia a tibia and a part of a humerus of Bison, which bones he reported were larger than those of the existing American bison, and he referred them to the species Bison latifrons. The tibia was 456 mm. long and 87 mm. wide at the lower end; in a large Bison bison in the U. S. National Museum the tibia is 412 mm. long and 78 mm. wide below.
Couper presented to the Boston Society of Natural History an atlas and a metatarsus from the same locality. The atlas had a width of 247 mm.; that of the existing bison just referred to is 220 mm. wide. The metatarsal is said to have been 272 mm. long; that of the living bison mentioned is 255 mm. A front cannon-bone at Harvard is 256 mm. long. In a collection determined by J. W. Gidley (Bull. No. 26, Geol. Surv. Georgia, p. 436) some bison remains, probably a tooth or teeth, were referred with doubt to Bison bison. It is far more probable that they belonged to an extinct species, and that B. latifrons.
2. Skidaway Island, near Savannah, Chatham County.—On page 29 of Joseph Habersham’s Memorandum, forming a part of William B. Hodgson’s “Memoir on the Megatherium,” published in 1846, a portion of the humerus of a Bos is listed among the fossils found at Skidaway Island. This bone is to be assigned to an undetermined species of Bison. The width across the condyles is given as 4.5 inches, which is not greater than in B. bison; but it is not probable that it was this species. Lyell (Second Visit, etc., ed. 3, vol. I, p. 348) includes “a species of the ox-tribe” among the fossils found at this locality.
For further remarks on the species of vertebrates found at Brunswick, the reader may consult page 371, where also the geology of the locality is discussed.