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

NEW YORK.

(Map [23].)

1. Racket River, St. Lawrence County.—J. E. De Kay, in 1842 (Zool. N. Y., Mamm., p. 120, plate XXIX, fig. 1), described a part of a skull, to which were attached the damaged antlers of an elk, which had been dug up near the mouth of Raquette River. This must have been not far from the town of Racket River. Nothing appears to be known regarding the conditions under which the skull was found. Leidy (Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., vol. VII, 1869, p. 377) refers to the specimen. It was at one time in the Lyceum of Natural History, New York, but is probably no longer in existence.

2. Seneca Castle, Ontario County.—Mr. E. Hitchcock (Science, vol. VI, 1885, p. 450) reported the finding of an antler of an elk at this place. It was associated with supposed remains of a mastodon, in a peat morass, near Flint Creek. It is to be credited to the Late Wisconsin.

3. Farmington, Ontario County.—James Hall, in 1887 (6th Ann. Rep. State Geologist, New York, p. 391), reported the discovery of about two-thirds of the skeleton of an elk at the place named, in a cedar swamp, buried in peat at depths of from 6 to 18 inches. The antlers had projected above the surface and had been gnawed by rodents. Hall remarked that the elk had not been known to live in that region since the coming of the white race. The skeleton may or may not have been deposited there during the late Pleistocene.

4. Livingston County.—In the collection at Princeton University is a calvarium of an elk labeled as found in Livingston County. The finder had, with a tool, chopped off the antlers and otherwise hacked the skull. One can not be certain as to the geological age of the specimen.

5. Cuba, Allegany County.—In 1843, James Hall (Geol. 4th Dist., p. 367) reported that several horns of deer and one of an elk had been found at the summit of the Genesee Valley Canal. The place given was New Hudson, 4 miles from Cuba; but this town is about 10 miles from Cuba and apparently not on the canal. The antlers were found at a depth of 12 feet, in muck.

6. Jamestown, Chautauqua County.—Hall (op. cit., p. 365) stated that Dr. Emmons had in his possession a tooth which he regarded as belonging to this species. De Kay (Zool. N. Y., Mamm., p. 120, plate XXIX, fig. 4) describes and figures this tooth. Emmons, in 1840 (Rep. Quadrupeds of Massachusetts, p. 82), first mentioned the tooth and said it had been found in a clay bed with several others. The tooth may belong to the Pleistocene, but this can not be proved. It is of value, as are the other cases, as showing the former distribution of the species.

7. Boonville, Oneida County.—In 1884 (Trans. Linn. Soc. N. Y., vol. II, p. 46), Dr. C. Hart Merriam reported that Mr. Calvin V. Graves, of Boonville, had parts of elk horns, plowed up in an old beaver meadow. These may have belonged to very late Pleistocene time or to any part of the Recent.

8. Third Lake of Fulton Chain, Herkimer County.—In the publication just referred to and on page [45], Merriam stated he had seen a number of elk antlers, found in a bog near the place mentioned. Their geological age can not be determined any more closely than in the preceding case.

9. Steele’s Corners, St. Lawrence County.—On page 46 of the paper just cited, Merriam reported that Dr. C. C. Benton, of Ogdensburg, had parts of antlers discovered at the place named. No details as to mode of occurrence were given. The antlers were discarded by their owners some time after the clearing away of the Wisconsin drift.