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

PENNSYLVANIA.

(Map [20].)

1. Stroudsburg, Monroe County.—Leidy (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1880, p. 347) reported Dicotyles nasutus from the Crystal Hill (Hartman’s) cave near Stroudsburg; but later (Ann. Rep. for 1887, Pennsylvania Geol. Surv., p. 8, plate II, figs. 3–6) he described the teeth and parts of the jaws as Dicotyles pennsylvanicus. This species will be found on page [310] under the name Mylohyus pennsylvanicus, in the list of fossils found in this cave. There too will be found a discussion of the location of the cave and the probable age of the remains.

2. Port Kennedy, Montgomery County.—In the bone cave at this place have been found 3 species of peccaries. Cope, in 1899 (Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., ser. 2, vol. II, pp. 259–263) described these under the names Mylohyus tetragonus, M. pennsylvanicus, and M. nasutus. The first was a new species, based on a damaged lower jaw with some of the teeth (op. cit., plate XXI, figs. 3–3b). For the present the writer refers it to the genus Tagassu, inasmuch as the interval between the canine and the first premolar (pm²) is only half the length of the whole tooth row, and the molars have the structure found in Tagassu. Some teeth belonging to an upper jaw were referred with doubt to this species. They may have belonged to Mylohyus pennsylvanicus. Of the species last named, Cope had fragments of 2 lower jaw’s with some teeth in them and some teeth free from the jaws. Of Mylohyus nasutus, Cope had from the cave only an upper canine and its reference to this species is uncertain.

On page [312] will be found a list of the species of vertebrates found in the Port Kennedy Cave; also remarks on their geological age.

3. Milroy, Mifflin County.—In 1882, Leidy described (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1882, p. 302) a species of peccary found in a limestone cave in the county named, but he gave no more exact information; nor did he do so in his two subsequent references to it in 1889 (Trans. Wagner Inst., vol. II, p. 49; Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv. Pennsylvania for 1887, p. 12, plate II, figs. 1, 2). The specimen is in the Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia. In the Pennsylvania survey, as quoted, the giver is called John Schwarzer. The name of the species is Platygonus vetus. The writer has been informed by J. C. Swigart, county surveyor of Mifflin County, that the proper name of the donor of the specimen was John Swartzell, a former surveyor who lived near Milroy and who was much interested in geology.

From Professor Mosheim Swartzell, of Washington, D. C., son of John Swartzell, the writer has received a letter in which are given this son’s recollections regarding the finding of the specimen in question. He states that it was discovered in Naginey’s limestone quarry, 1.5 miles south of Milroy. It came from a considerable, but now unknown, distance from the surface and was first noticed in the débris of the quarry. While Mr. John Swartzell was observing it, an ignorant workman struck it with a tool and damaged it, exclaiming that it was only the jaw of a hog. It was later sent to Philadelphia. Professor Swartzell writes that there was a cave not far away, but that the jaw was not found in it; it probably had fallen down into a crevice of the limestone.

4. Frankstown, Blair County.—In 1908 (Ann. Carnegie Mus., vol. IV, p. 231), Dr. W. J. Holland reported remains of a number of peccaries found in a bone cave at the place named. He mentioned especially Dicotyles pennsylvanicus, but thought it belonged properly in Platygonus. It is probably to be referred to Mylohyus as M. pennsylvanicus.