The Pleistocene of North America / and its vertebrated animals from the states east of the Mississippi River and from the Canadian provinces east of longitude 95°

by Oliver Perry Hay

MISSISSIPPI.

(Map [5].)

1. Perthshire, Bolivar County.—In the U. S. National Museum is a fragment, the rear end, of an upper left hindermost molar of Mammut americanum, received from Perthshire in August 1914. It is the gift of Mr. S. D. Knowlton and was reported as having been sucked up with gravel from the bed of Mississippi River. This place is in the northern part of Bolivar County and immediately south of latitude 34°.

2. Caseilla, Tallahatchie County.—The writer has seen a lower left last molar of a mastodon, found in 1915, near this place. It was sent to the U. S. National Museum for identification by Dr. B. Franklin, of Caseilla. He stated that the tooth had been found in Avant Creek, about 3 miles above its entrance into Yalobusha River, apparently in the southeastern corner of Tallahatchie County, in township 23 north, range 7 west. The tooth had been buried in joint clay. The banks of the creek are usually about 10 feet high, but where the tooth was found, on the south side of the creek, the bluff is about 50 feet high.

3. Jackson, Hinds County.—In the collection of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia is a lower left last milk molar, presented by Dr. Isaac Lea and reported to have been found near Jackson, Mississippi. No additional information was furnished. The tooth is but slightly worn and has complete roots.

4. Vicksburg, Warren County.—In the U. S. National Museum (No. 344) is a fragment of an upper right last molar, said to have been found at Vicksburg. The fragment consists of the hindermost crest and the talon. In Wailles’s report on the geology of Mississippi, 1854, page 284, there is a statement to the effect that mastodon remains had been found in the deep cut of the railroad at Vicksburg.

5. Bovina?, Warren County.—In Wailles’s report, just cited, it is stated that mastodon bones had been found in the vicinity of Big Black River, near the eastern line of Warren County. While the statement is rather indefinite, the locality is probably somewhere in the region about Bovina, on the railway from Vicksburg to Jackson.

6. Claiborne County.—According to Dr. Leidy (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1859, p. 111), portions of jaws with teeth of mastodons have been found in this county, associated with a skull of a bear which he could not distinguish from that of Ursus americanus.

7. Jefferson County.—In Wailles’s report of 1854 (p. [284]), already cited, it is stated that remains of the mastodon had been found in this county, near the former town of Greenville. The writer has not been able to learn more exactly where this town was situated.

8. Natchez, Adams County.—The region about Natchez is a fertile one for remains of mastodons and various other fossil vertebrates. The first mention of the finding of fossils here appears to be a note by S. L. Mitchill in 1826 (Cat. Organ. Remains, p. 10), who presented two teeth to the Lyceum of Natural History, New York. G. Troost, in 1835 (Trans. Geol. Soc. Penn., vol. I, p. 143), stated that he had in his cabinet a tooth of a mastodon, found near Natchez.

In 1845 (Proc. 6th Meet. Assoc. Amer. Geologists and Naturalists, pp. 77–79), M. W. Dickeson read a paper on the geology of the Natchez bluffs, in which he mentioned the occurrence of mastodons.

In 1846 (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1846, p. 106), the same writer exhibited at the Academy a large collection of fossil bones which had been made near Natchez. His account treats especially of the remains of Megalonyx jeffersonii and a human pelvis; but it is mentioned that the deposit abounds in bones and teeth of the mastodon. Dickeson stated that the stratum which contained these organic remains is a tenacious blue clay which underlies what he called the diluvial drift east of Natchez. This “drift” is now regarded as being mostly loess.

Lyell, in 1846 (Second Visit to U. S. N. A., ed. 2, vol. II, p. 195), wrote that mastodon remains had been found in the loam (loess) which contained land-shells at different depths.

Hilgard in 1860 (Geol. Agric. Mississippi, p. 196) gives a list, furnished by Dr. Leidy, of the mammalian fossils which had been found “in a solid blue clay said to belong to this formation” (the Bluff formation). Mastodons are said to be by far the most common. At Pine Ridge, 6 miles north of Natchez, in townships 7 and 8 north, range 3 west, mastodons and other mammals occurred at a depth of about 20 feet from the surface, in a ravine. The list referred to was quoted from Wailles’s report of 1854 (Agric. Geol. Mississippi, pp. 285, 286).

Leidy, in 1889 (Trans. Wagner Inst., vol. II, p. 9), in speaking of the occurrence of human remains at Natchez, referred to the occurrence of the mastodon at this place. McGee, in 1891 (12th Ann. Rep. U. S. Geol. Surv., pt. I, p. 399), in discussing the geological conditions at Natchez, stated that several nearly perfect skulls of the mastodon and at least one of the American elephant had been discovered at Natchez. His idea was that some of these remains had been found in the brown loam and some in the gravelly beds well down toward the Port Hudson clays.

In his discussion of the loess at Natchez, Shimek, in 1904 (Bull. Labs. Nat. Hist., Univ. Iowa, p. 305), expressed doubt about the occurrence of mastodons and other vertebrates in the loess.

In the collection at Yale University is a large lower jaw of Mammut americanum, labeled as found at Natchez. Both rami are represented and each has in it the second and third molars. The hindermost molar is but little worn. The second molar is 115 mm. long and 87 mm. wide, the third molar 188 mm. long and 93 mm. wide. The spout at the front of the jaw is cut off square and is rough, but there are no sockets for tusks.

For further consideration of the Pleistocene geology at Natchez and a list of the species of vertebrates found there, the reader is referred to pages 389 to 393.

9. Pinckneyville, Wilkinson County.—On page 284 of Wailles’s report of 1854 he stated that mastodon bones had been obtained in Bayou Sara, near Pinckneyville.

10. Between Zeiglerville and Pearce, Yazoo County.—In the U. S. National Museum (No. 10275) is a right ramus of the lower jaw of a mastodon, found on the farm of Mr. R. L. Fisher, about 8 miles northwest of Vaughan. This jaw was sent to the U. S. National Museum by Mr. R. H. Douthat, secretary of the Yazoo Commercial Club, of Yazoo City. The specimen had been washed out of its place of burial along a creek. From Mr. Fisher the writer has received the information that the jaw was found along Teshacah Creek, in section 9, township 12 north, range 1 east. It appears to have been buried at a depth of about 15 feet.

The length of the jaw from the rear to the front of the penultimate molar is 630 mm., to the front of the beak 808 mm. A part of the front of the jaw has been broken off during exhumation, as shown by the photographs. The height at the middle of the length is 195 mm. The coronoid process rises 400 mm. above the lower border of the jaw. There are present the hindermost and the penultimate molars. The hindermost is 220 mm. long and has five crests and a low rough talon. In the front of the jaw is a part of the socket for an incisor tusk which had a diameter of about 40 mm. Apparently the jaw is to be referred to Mammut progenium.

11. Woodville, Wilkinson County.—From Mr. W. L. Ferguson, of Woodville, the writer has received a letter, with a photograph showing jawbones, with teeth, of one or more mastodons found near Woodville. Some fragments of tusks, a part of a skull, and some vertebræ were also found. The information is sent that these remains were buried under 30 feet of deposit. They were found on the bank of Dunbar Creek, a tributary of Bayou Sara, in township 1, range 3, section 24.

On pages [385] to [389] will be treated the geology of this region; but at the present it would be unsafe to refer these mastodons to any particular stage of the Pleistocene.