ONTARIO.
(Map [11].)
1. Toronto, York County.—In 1863 (Canad. Naturalist and Geol., vol. VIII, p. 399), Professor Alex. Winchell wrote that he had a cast of a tooth found at Toronto, and thought by him to belong to Elephas primigenius. The writer saw this cast at Ann Arbor, Michigan. It is evidently a lower right penultimate molar of the species mentioned. It is to be regretted that more information was not furnished as to the exact locality and the beds; it would be of interest to know whether it had been found in the interglacial deposits that occur about Toronto.
2. Amaranth, Dufferin County.—In 1908 (Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., vol. IX, p. 387), Dr. Robert Bell reported the finding of the greater part of the skeleton of an elephant in a swamp in lot 9, range 7, of the township of Amaranth. The tusk was said to be 14 feet long and 8 inches in diameter. The context indicates that the remains were found at a moderate depth in shell marl.
In 1891 (Geol. Mag., dec. 3, vol. VIII, p. 504), Professor J. Hoyes Panton reported the discovery, in 1890, of bones of a mammoth at this place, impliedly in a bed of marl. There were 31 ribs, several vertebræ, a tusk 12.66 feet long, with a portion broken off; also a tooth weighing 16.75 pounds. From Mr. Simon Jelly, of Shelburne, the writer learns that the bones reported to have been found at Shelburne are the same as those reported from Amaranth. They had been exhumed by his brother, John Jelly, and were taken to Owen Sound and from there exhibited at county fairs for several years.
These bones, or a part of them, are at present in possession of Mr. Alexander Duke, of San Diego, California. A photograph of the tusk shows it has quite the length given for it. It is relatively slender, the base having a diameter said to be 9.5 inches. It is spirally twisted in the distal half. The atlas is present and stated to measure 16 by 9 inches. There is a small but distinct photograph of a hindermost molar, apparently an upper one. The tooth is 16 inches long, 7 inches high, and 3 inches wide. This is the length from the front of the grinding-surface to the base behind. The plates are not worn to the base in front. There appear to be 22 ridge-plates present, and 6 in a 4–inch line. The base of the tooth is straight; the ridge-plates curve forward slightly as they ascend. The hyoid arch is preserved. The writer regards the specimen as being a large individual of Elephas primigenius.
This elephant lived after the Wisconsin ice-sheet had begun to withdraw. According to Taylor’s map (Monogr. U. S. Geol. Surv., LIII, plate XIX), this region had become cleared of ice while the basin of Lake Ontario was still fully occupied by the glacier; but it is doubtful that the animal could have lived there at that time.