OHIO.
1. Cincinnati, Hamilton County.—In 1895 (Jour. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. XVII, p. 217), Mr. Seth Hayes recorded the discovery of a molar tooth and a vertebra of a horse, identified as Equus fraternus. It was met with in exhuming the remains of the “Shaw mastodon” in Hyde Park, in the northeastern part of Cincinnati. The details of the exhumation are given in the description of the mastodon. The geological age of these animals dates probably from about the Sangamon stage. The writer has not been able to examine the horse remains referred to. It is probable that the tooth belonged to Equus complicatus.
2. Columbus, Franklin County.—In 1848 (Amer. Jour. Sci., ser. 1, vol. V, p. 215), Charles Whittlesey stated that bones and teeth of a horse had been found in fissures or “clay seams” of the Cliff limestone at Columbus. In 1866 (Smithson. Contrib. Knowl., vol. XV, art. 3, p. 16), the same geologist reported that Joseph Sullivant, of Columbus, had, many years before, obtained from the crevices of the Cliff lime rock, on the west side of Scioto River, a number of bones embedded in red clay. Among these was the tooth of a horse. The crevice had not been open since the date of the white settlement of the country and it was wholly filled by the red clay which results from the decomposition of the limestone. Probably all the remains mentioned by Whittlesey have been lost.
In 1875 (Cin. Quart. Jour. Nat. Hist., vol. II, p. 154), Klippart wrote that, in excavating the exterior wall at the Ohio penitentiary, the warden, Mr. Burr, found the fossil jaw of a horse with the molars in good condition. He stated the horse must have been one-third larger than the ordinary horse of to-day.
From Professor Clinton R. Stauffer, of Adelbert College, Cleveland, the writer received for examination a horse-tooth, labeled: “Catalogue No. 356. Horse-tooth. Given by Robert Cartwright. Found at Columbus, Ohio, in excavating in a peat-bed for a gas holder in the penitentiary grounds, October 30, 1873.” It is possible that this is the same tooth mentioned by Klippart, but probably it is another. The present writer identifies the tooth as that of Equus complicatus. The geological age is probably approximately that of the Sangamon stage.
3. Salt Creek, Columbiana County.—In 1866 (Smithson. Contrib. Knowl., art. 3, vol. V, p. 16), Charles Whittlesey reported a tooth of a horse found, about 20 years before, in making the Sandy and Beaver Canal, along Sandy Creek, in Columbiana County, at a depth not exceeding 12 or 15 feet. Probably the locality was in the southwestern corner of the county. The sources of Salt Creek are in Hanover Township, not far from the sources of Little Beaver Creek. From this vicinity Salt Creek flows westward. This county lies within the Illinoian drift region and the horse probably lived during the Sangamon stage or earlier.