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

ONTARIO.

(Map [12].)

1. St. Catharines, Lincoln County.—In 1898 (Ottawa Naturalist, vol. XII, p. 137), Mr. L. M. Lambe stated that there was in the collection of the Geological Survey of Canada from this place a molar of a mammoth, purchased in 1887 by Mr. Whiteaves. It had been found while excavating under the opera house for a sewer, on Queen Street. In the collection of the Buffalo Society of Natural History the writer has seen a cast of a lower right hindermost molar, the original of which is said to have been found at St. Catharines. It was probably made from the tooth now in the collection at Ottawa. There are 22 plates; probably one or two may be missing from the front, and the wear extends over only 6 plates. Of these there are 7 in a 100–mm. line. The plates of the hinder half are considerably curved, and the hindermost ones lean strongly forward. The writer regards the tooth as that of Elephas columbi.

As shown by Fairchild’s plate 17 (Bull. 160, New York Geol. Surv.) and Coleman’s plate 22 (Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., XV, p. 347) this town is situated within the Iroquois beach. The elephant could, therefore, hardly have lived at or before the time of the formation of the beach; in reality it probably lived long after the lake had retired to its present limits.

In his “Catalogue of Casts of Fossils,” 1866, page 37, Henry A. Ward gave a figure of a cast of an elephant tooth, No. 143, the original of which was said to have been found at St. Catharines. This tooth may be the one now at Ottawa, but if so the figure is incorrect.

2. Hamilton, Wentworth County.—In 1863 (Canad. Nat. and Geol., vol. VII, p. 135), a lower jaw of an elephant was described under the name Euelephas jacksoni Briggs and Foster. This had been found near Hamilton, at the extreme western end of Lake Ontario. It was mentioned and figured as Euelephas jacksoni in the same year by W. E. Logan (Rep. Geol. Surv. Canada, p. 914, figs. 495, 497). The specific name, however, is not to be credited to Briggs and Foster, for it was proposed by W. W. Mather in 1838 (Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. XXXIV, p. 362, figures) for a lower jaw of an elephant found in Jackson County, Ohio. This jaw is, however, from the description and the figure, wholly indeterminable. Lambe (Ottawa Naturalist, vol. XII, p. 136) presents a short history of the specimen found at Hamilton. It was reported first by T. Cottle in 1852 (Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 2, vol. X, p. 395; reprint in Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. XV, 1853, p. 282). Besides the jaw, lacking most of the left ramus, there was found a much-curved tusk nearly 7 feet long.

The writer has had the opportunity to examine this jaw, now in the Victoria Museum at Ottawa. It is believed to belong to Elephas columbi. The finely preserved last molar has been worn on about 9 of the ridge-plates, and this worn surface is about 110 mm. long. There are 24 plates present, and 8 of these occupy a 100–mm. line. The hinder plates lean forward and the base of the tooth is very convex.

Cottle reported that the remains were discovered at a depth of 40 feet from the surface and at an elevation of 60 feet above the level of the lake. It is stated on the label that the elevation above the lake was 70 feet, and this is the height given by Logan (Geol. Canada, 1863, p. 914). The author stated also that at an elevation of 7 feet more were found antlers of Cervus canadensis and the jaw of a beaver.