MISSISSIPPI.
(Map [25].)
1. Natchez.—The first notice of the occurrence of any species of the Ovibovinæ at Natchez seems to be the inclusion of Symbos (Boötherium) cavifrons in Leidy’s list of fossil Mammalia found in the State of Mississippi (Wailles’s Rep. Agric. Geol. Mississippi, 1854, p. 269), but the locality is not mentioned. The occurrence of the species in the State was not mentioned by Leidy in 1853 in his “Memoir on Extinct Species of Fossil Ox” (Smithson. Contrib. Knowl., vol. V, art. 3). Leidy’s list mentioned above was quoted by Hilgard in 1860 (Agric. Geol. Mississippi, p. 196). In neither place was any statement made regarding the part preserved. In his “Memoir on the Extinct Sloth Tribe of North America,” published in 1855 (Smithson. Contrib. Knowl., vol. VII, art. 5, p. 6), Leidy stated that Boötherium had been found at Natchez. Five years later (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1870, p. 73) Leidy reported that an isolated tooth, a last lower molar not yet protruded from the jaw, had been received from Natchez and was preserved in the museum of the Philadelphia Academy. On comparison with a last molar in a jaw of a supposed Ovibos cavifrons received at the Smithsonian Institution and found near Woodbine, Iowa, Leidy concluded that the Natchez tooth belonged to the same species. Probably he had already based on this tooth the announcement of the presence of this species at Natchez. At least, the writer knows of no other parts of Symbos cavifrons found at Natchez, and he has seen neither the tooth from Natchez nor the jaw from Woodbine, Iowa.
Leidy stated that the tooth in question had a height of 2.25 inches, a length antero-posteriorly of 2 inches.