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

SOUTH CAROLINA.

(Map [12].)

1. Beaufort, Beaufort County.—In 1877, Dr. Leidy (Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., vol. VIII, p. 213) stated that there was in the exhibit of the Smithsonian Institution at the exposition at Philadelphia, in 1876, a last lower molar of this species, found at Beaufort. The present writer has not recognized the tooth in the collection of the U. S. National Museum.

In Rutgers College are six or more teeth or parts of teeth of E. columbi, recorded as coming from Coosaw River. In the collection of Amherst College the writer has seen two lower hindermost molars, labeled as collected in Coosaw River.

2. Edisto River.—In the collection of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia there is a fragment of a molar of Elephas columbi, comprising only 2 ridge-plates, recorded as having been found in or on Edisto River. The specimen is credited to Dr. H. C. Chapman. While the locality is indefinite, it probably was somewhere around Edisto Island.

3. Charleston, Charleston County.—Numerous teeth of Elephas columbi have been found in the region surrounding Charleston. Godman (Amer. Nat. Hist., vol. II, p. 257) referred to a statement made by Catesby to the effect that negroes had found teeth along Stono River which they recognized as those of an elephant. This had previously been mentioned by Barton in his “Archæologia Americana,” 1814. In Holmes’s “Post-Pliocene Fossils of South Carolina,” page 108, Leidy stated that small fragments of teeth and bones, usually much water-worn, of the extinct elephant are not infrequently found in the Post-Pliocene deposits in the vicinity of Ashley River. In a footnote to this remark, F. S. Holmes stated that later a perfect tooth had been discovered and was figured on plate XVII; but the tooth there figured came from Texas.

In 1870 (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1870, p. 98), Leidy reported that he had seen in the collection of C. N. Shepard, at Amherst College, remains of elephant from Ashley River. It is certain that at least a part of these remains belonged to Elephas columbi. In the U. S. National Museum are teeth, recorded as having been secured from the phosphate beds about Charleston. As an example may be mentioned No. 2105, a large upper right molar, with 20 ridge-plates. Another has the number 1614 (Hay, Iowa Geol. Surv., vol. XXIII, p. 413, plate LXI, fig. 4).

In the Charleston Museum the writer has seen a lower second milk molar (No. 13504) of this species. There are 9 ridge-plates and front and rear talons. The length is 123 mm., the width 52 mm., with 8 plates in a 100–mm. line. In the same museum is an upper left second milk molar (No. 1109) with 8 plates present. The length along the base is 95 mm.; from the base in front to the rear of the crown 117 mm.; width 55 mm. This tooth appears to have been found somewhere about Charleston. In the same museum are other teeth of this species, mostly parts of the hindermost molars. Other teeth are found in the private collections of Charleston.

In the American Museum of Natural History, New York, there are some teeth (Nos. 13707, 13708) from the vicinity of Charleston which are referred to Elephas columbi. One is an upper hindermost molar, worn to the base in front and having left 18 plates. There are 6 plates in a 100–mm. line. The enamel is thick. The length of the tooth is 292 mm.; the width, 90 mm. Another is a worn lower tooth with 16 plates.

Another tooth, either a last milk molar or a first true molar, is not worn to the base and retains the front root. There are 12 plates and a large talon and a 100–mm. line crosses 8 plates. The enamel is thick and considerably festooned. The greatest length of the tooth is 173 mm. There is another lower right tooth, probably the last milk molar, which presents 11 plates and front and rear talons. There are nearly 8 plates in a 100–mm. line.

Another right lower tooth, apparently the first true molar, 165 mm. long on the grinding-face, has likewise 8 plates in 100 mm. A part of an upper hindermost molar preserves 11 plates. There are 6 plates in 100 mm. and the enamel is thick and folded.

For a list of the vertebrate fossils found in the region about Charleston, and their geological age, the reader is referred to page 363.

4. Head of Cooper River, Berkeley County.—In 1802, John Drayton (“A View of South Carolina,” p. 40, plate, fig. 5) wrote that elephant bones had been discovered in the excavation of a canal joining Santee and Cooper Rivers. Drayton’s illustration shows that this tooth must have belonged to Elephas columbi. The locality was in Biggin Swamp, apparently not far from Monks Corner. At the same time and place were found remains of Mammut americanum. The materials are said to have been deposited in the Charleston Library. Barton (Archæologia Amer., p. 22) stated he had examined teeth of both the mastodon and the elephant from this place. Richard Harlan (Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., ser. 1, vol. III, p. 66, plate V, fig. 3; Med. Phys. Res. p. 359, plate, fig. 3) stated that a tooth of an elephant from the Santee Canal had been sent to the Academy at Philadelphia.