GEORGIA.
(Map [5].)
1. Brunswick, Glynn County.—In Richard Harlan’s list (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., vol. I, 1841–43, p. 189) of fossil vertebrates which had been exhumed in making the Brunswick Canal were mentioned teeth of Mastodon giganteum (=Mammut americanum). About this time J. H. Couper (Proc. Geol. Soc. Lond., vol. IV, p. 33) read a paper in which he mentioned the occurrence of the same species in the canal referred to. Lyell (Second Visit, etc., p. 348) included the mastodon among the species discovered here. Richard Owen (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1846, p. 93) reported the result of an examination of a collection submitted to him through Lyell. Hippopotamus had been recognized in a supposed incisor; but Owen showed that it was a small tusk of a proboscidean, probably of Mammut americanum. Leidy (Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., vol. VII, p. 248) stated that he had examined in the collection of the Academy the hinder part of a tooth of the American mastodon.
Gidley (Bull. 26, Geol. Surv. Georgia, p. 436) recognized Gomphotherium floridanum and Mammut americanum in a collection which had been made some years ago at Brunswick, probably in dredging in the harbor. Inasmuch as only fragments of these teeth were present, the identification was difficult. The writer has, through the kindness of Professor S. W. McCallie, had the opportunity to examine these fragments. They appear all to belong to Gomphotherium rugosidens, a species rather common in that region. This species probably does not belong to the Pleistocene, but to the upper Miocene or the Lower Pliocene. It is possible, however, that it belongs to the lowermost Pleistocene, the Nebraskan.
2. Skidaway Island, near Savannah, Chatham County.—Remains of Mammut americanum have been found at two places in Chatham County, Heyner’s Bridge and Skidaway Island. Lyell (Travels in N. A., 1845, vol. I, p. 163) records his visit to Heyner’s Bridge, on White Bluff Creek, about 7 miles south of Savannah. In Hodgson’s memoir this locality is said to be on Vernon Creek (map [40]). Lyell had learned from Dr. Habersham that bones of mastodons and other extinct mammals had already been found there. Lyell himself secured a grinder of a mastodon. It was found in a bed of clay about 6 feet thick exposed only at low water. The tooth referred to may be the one mentioned by Lydekker (Cat. Foss. Mamm. Brit. Mus., pt. IV, p. 23). Hodgson (“Memoir on Megatherium,” p. 12) reported the discovery of mastodon remains at this place, specifying a section of a tusk 3.25 feet long and nearly 11 inches in circumference; also a femur, which was sent to Paris. Reference is made to the mastodon remains on page 42 of the memoir mentioned. For the geology of this locality and a list of the species found there the reader is referred to page 371.