SOUTH CAROLINA.

To the reader who wishes to know what work has been done on the Pleistocene geology of South Carolina, two papers may be recommended. The first of these, historical in nature, was published in 1890 by Professor Joseph A. Holmes (Jour. Elisha Mitchell Sci. Soc., vol. VII, pp. 89–117), the second in 1905 by Dr. Griffith T. Pugh (Thesis, Vanderbilt Univ., pp. 1–74). Those who have contributed most to a knowledge of the palæontology of this formation are Tuomey, F. S. Holmes, Leidy, Dall, Dall and Harris, Earle Sloan, and G. T. Pugh. J. A. Holmes, Tuomey, F. S. Holmes, and Dall have made important contributions to the knowledge of the invertebrate animals. For our knowledge of the vertebrates we are indebted principally to F. S. Holmes and Joseph Leidy. The author who has dealt most recently and in considerable detail with the stratigraphy of the Pleistocene deposits is Earle Sloan, State geologist (Bull. No. 2, ser. IV, South Carolina Geol. Surv., 1908, 479 pages). From these authorities we learn that, while the larger part of the Coastal Plain may be to a greater or less extent overlain by deposits referable to McGee’s Columbian, the deposits which bear fossils are confined almost wholly to a narrow strip along the coast. In this strip have been found the numerous mollusks listed and described by Tuomey, F. S. Holmes, and W. H. Dall, as well as most of the species of vertebrate fossils. The fossiliferous deposits do not usually extend back from the coast more than about 10 miles.

Undoubtedly fossil-bearing Pleistocene deposits are to be found here and there along all the rivers, perhaps to the western border of the Coastal Plain. This is indicated by the discovery of remains of horses and mastodons in Darlington and Richland counties. The thickness of the Pleistocene deposits along the coast is said to amount to as much as 60 feet, but it is usually much less. Only a part of this is fossiliferous, a bed that appears to vary in thickness from about 3 to 8 feet. This is found as much as 8 feet above mean-tide level, sometimes below it. The materials of this fossiliferous bed vary greatly. Sometimes they consist almost entirely of shells of mollusks, in other cases of a blue mud or sand, and with these may be mingled peaty materials, gravel, and again rolled masses derived from the underlying deposits. The fossils contained in the bed mentioned consist of mollusks, and in some places bones and teeth of vertebrates occur in more or less abundance. The bed is underlain often by deposits of Tertiary age. Bones and teeth of the vertebrates, as fishes and cetaceans, that lived when those Tertiary rocks were being deposited may occasionally have been washed into the Pleistocene bed. Again, where the older and the newer beds are exposed along the shores, fossils may be washed out of both and commingled on the beach; then again, a great part of the fossils collected along this coast of South Carolina have been rescued from the phosphate rock gathered for commercial purposes. This has been to a great extent dredged from the rivers; and thus remains of Pleistocene and of Tertiary animals have been mixed indiscriminately together. It is often impossible to determine to what formation a fossil may belong. To add to the difficulty of the palæontologist, the vertebrate remains are sometimes found washed out and mingled with bones or teeth of what appear to have been domestic animals.

Beginning at the northern end of the South Carolina coast-line, the first locality furnishing Pleistocene fossils is, or rather was (Pugh, op. cit. p. 33), White (or Price’s) Creek, in Horry County. Here at a height of about 5 feet above tide was found a bed approximately 6 feet thick apparently thrown up on the shore by storms (Tuomey, Geol. Rep., 1848, p. 187). No vertebrates have been reported from the locality. At Laurel Hill, in the extreme northeastern corner of Georgetown County, Tuomey (op. cit., pp. 187, 188) found a perpendicular bluff 30 feet high, at the base of which was a bed 8 feet thick made up of sand and broken shells. The top of the bed was 8 feet above tide, the highest elevation reached by the bed along the South Carolina coast. Tuomey mentions other localities around Georgetown where the fossiliferous bed was discovered. One was on Santee River. No vertebrates appear to have been met with in this region. In Christ Church parish, in Charleston County, Tuomey discovered several exposures of the bed in question, and this was sometimes so superficial as to be within reach of the plow.

Pugh (Pleistocene Deposits, etc., p. 34) quotes from F. S. Holmes a section which was found at Goose Creek, north of Charleston, as follows:

Yellow sand	12	feet
Blue mud	29	feet
Ferruginous sand, containing bones, etc.	3	inches
Yellow sand	3	feet
Pliocene marl resting on Eocene white marl	12	feet

The bones occurred likewise in the blue mud, and such were especially well preserved. Leidy (Holmes’s Post-Pl. Foss. S. C., p. 102) recounts his observations at this locality; nevertheless, the only vertebrate fossil that the writer finds credited by Leidy to this locality is a tooth of Equus fraternus (=E. leidyi), which he figured (plate XV, fig. 8).

Dredging for phosphate rock has been carried on extensively in Cooper River; but of Pleistocene vertebrate fossils secured here the writer has record of only Megatherium, mirabile. This is represented in the Charleston Museum by a portion of a lower jaw.

Wando River is situated northeast of Charleston, runs parallel with the coast, and empties into Cooper River. From this have (according to the writer’s knowledge) been secured only Equus complicatus and a part of a tusk of Odobenus. The latter is in the Charleston Museum. In most cases no record has been kept of the origin of the specimens in collections.

The Pleistocene bed along Ashley River is famous for the number of fossil vertebrates which it has furnished. It has been described by F. S. Holmes in various publications, especially in the Introduction to his Post-Pleiocene Fossils of South Carolina, 1860, pages I-XII. In the same work, on pages 99–100, Dr. Leidy briefly described the geological character of the beds; and on subsequent pages he described the vertebrate species found there. The principal beds were located on Ashley River, about 10 miles above Charleston. According to Pugh (“Pleistocene Deposits of South Carolina,” p. 34), the fossiliferous deposits rest on Miocene marls. At the top are 4 feet of yellow sands with bands of clay; below, is a foot or more of blue mud lying on the Miocene. The bones are more numerous and best preserved in the blue mud. The Pleistocene bed is elevated only a few feet above tide-level. Inasmuch as nearly all the species of Pleistocene vertebrates which have been found along the South Carolina coast have been secured along the Ashley River, the few found elsewhere will be included in the following list. Some of those marked found somewhere about Charleston may have been collected in or along Ashley River. In this list the contractions following the names signify as follows: A, Ashley River; B, the region about Beaufort; C, somewhere around Charleston; C. r., Cooper River; E, Edisto River; G. c., Goose Creek; J. i., John’s Island; S. r., Stone River; W. r., Wando River; Y., Yonge’s or Young Island. The species preceded by the dagger are extinct.

Odobenus rosmarus A., W. r. (p. [29]).
Lynx ruff us C.
†Canis sp. indet. C.
Procyon lotor A.
†Arctodus pristinus A.
Ursus americanus C.
Sylvilagus floridanus? A.
†Hydrochœrus æsopi A.
†Hydrochœrus pinckneyi C. (p. [365]).
†Castoroides ohioensis A. (p. [279]).
Castor canadensis A.
Ondatra zibethica A.
†Elephas imperator C. (p. [162]).
†Elephas columbi A., B. (p. [155]).
†Mammut americanum A., B. (p. [118]).
Mammut progenium (p. [118]).
†Bison latifrons? A. (p. [260]).
†Bison sp. indet. A. (p. [260]).
†Alces runnymedensis C. (p. [364]).
Cervus canadensis A. (p. [242]).
Odocoileus virginianus? A. (p. [231]).
Camelops sp. indet.
†Tagassu lenis A. (p. [222]).
†Tagassu sp. indet.? A. (p. [222]).
†Tapirus haysii A. (p. [204]).
†Tapirus sp. indet. A. (p. [205]).
†Equus complicatus A., W. r., B. (p. [192]).
†Equus leidyi A., J. i., G. c., S. r., B. (p. [192]).
†Equus littoralis C. (p. [193]).
†Hipparion venustum A.
†Physeter vetus A.
†Trichechus antiquus A.
†Megatherium mirabile A., C. r., S. r. (p. [35]).
†Mylodon harlani A. (p. [35]).
†Megalonyx jeffersonii B. (p. [35]).
†Didelphis virginiana J. i.
†Alligator mississippiensis A.
†Pseudemys sp. indet. A.
†Testudo crassiscutata? A.
Trichiurus lepturus Y.
†Istiophorus robustus Y.
†Ischyrhiza mira? A.
Lepisosteus osseus A.
Dasyatis hastata? Y.

Besides the species enumerated, the early collectors found remains which were identified as belonging to such domestic animals as the dog, ox, sheep, and hog. Leidy rejected these as Pleistocene species, while Holmes and Agassiz accepted them as such. Possibly the supposed dog was in reality a wolf and the supposed ox a bison. Small teeth like those of cows are fossilized as are the teeth of extinct animals. At Bee’s Ferry on Ashley River the fossiliferous bed has a thickness of 3.5 feet and is at about high-water mark. It is overlain by from 15 to 20 feet of loose sands.

By far the most of the species have been entered in the list on the authority of Joseph Leidy. Only F. S. Holmes reported the elk (Cervus canadensis), and the writer has seen two teeth of the species at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia credited to Charleston. Holmes also reported Glyptodon, but that is not included in the list. Lynx ruffus, Ursus americanus, Hydrochœrus pinckneyi, Elephas imperator, Bison latifrons, Alces runnymedensis, Camelops sp., and Equus littoralis are included on the evidence of specimens seen by the writer in the Charleston Museum or in some of the other collections made on the coast of South Carolina. Loomis has recently (Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. XLV, 1918, p. 438) described a specimen of Mammut progenium (as Mastodon americanus) from near Charleston and another from near Beaufort.

Alces runnymedensis was first briefly referred to in Year Book No. 14 of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1915 (1916), page 387. The name is based on an upper right hindermost milk molar in the Charleston Museum (No. 13534). It is the property of Mr. Charles C. Pinckney. Where the tooth was found is not known, but it was somewhere near Charleston, in the phosphate-bearing area. The specific name is that of the estate of the owner. The tooth closely resembles the corresponding one of Alces americanus, but is larger and has a flatter crown. Only the crown of the tooth is preserved, and of this a part of the enamel of the inner anterior cone is broken off; otherwise it is in fine condition. The color is very black. The following measurements are given of this tooth and of the corresponding one of Alces americanus, No. 117055 of the U. S. Biological Survey. The two teeth are only slightly worn.

Measurements of milk molars of Alces, in millimeters.

Dimensions taken.	A. americanum.	A. runnymedensis.
Length of tooth near outer border	24.0	25.5
Length of tooth at middle width	21.5	23.0
Width of tooth along front border	23.0	23.0
Width of tooth from median style to base of inner hinder cone	21.0	24.0

The angle between the outer and inner faces of the hinder half of the tooth is 54° in the tooth of the existing species, 64° in the fossil tooth. On the grinding-surface the fossettes are wider than in the tooth of the existing moose.

It is interesting to find this moose in the region about Charleston. We must suppose that it lived there during one of the glacial stages, probably when the walrus occupied that part of the coast.

In the Pinckney collection is a tooth of a capybara that deserves attention. A figure of it is here presented (fig. 18), a side view. Exactly where the tooth was found is not known, but it was somewhere in the vicinity of Charleston. The tooth is the upper left hindermost molar. In the figure the front end is directed toward the left hand. There are present 17 plates. None of the plates either in front or behind are missing. The free edges of the plates are not turned backward. The length of the tooth is 62 mm., the width is 17.5, the height of the plates on the inner face 37 mm., but probably the less calcified bases of the plates have been destroyed.

Fig. 18.—Side view of upper last molar of Hydrochœrus pinckneyi from Charleston, S. C. ×1. Type.

On the grinding-surface the plates run obliquely from the inside outward and backward. As seen on the inner face, the plates, as they pass to the grinding-surface, lean backward. The corresponding tooth of a capybara from Surinam has a length of 37 mm. The length of its skull from foramen magnum to the front of the snout is 215 mm. In case the skull of the fossil was long in proportion to the length of the tooth, the length as given above would be 360 mm., about 15 inches.

To this fine large species I give the name Hydrochœrus pinckneyi, in honor of Mr. Charles C. Pinckney, the owner of a collection of fossils from the region about Charleston and the proprietor of the estate of Runnymede, near Lambs, South Carolina.

In the same collection is a part of the lower jaw, right side, of a rather large wolf. In this jaw there remain the complete fourth premolar, the roots of the third premolar, and one root of the second (fig. 19).

The following measurements are taken from the fragment mentioned; from the corresponding part of a jaw of Ænocyon dirus, No. 8307, from La Brea, California; from the gray wolf, Canis occidentalis, from Fort Simpson, British America, No. 9001, U. S. National Museum; and from the type of C. floridanus, in the U. S. National Museum.

Measurements of jaws and teeth of wolves, in millimeters.

Parts measured.	Charleston jaw.	La Brea jaw.	C. occidentalis jaw.	C. floridanus type.
Height of jaw in front of pm₄	28	32	33	21.5
Thickness at front of pm₄	14	16	14.2	10.2
Length of pm₄	18.5	20.2	18.5	14.5
Thickness of hinder lobe of pm₄	9.5	11	9.5	7
Thickness of front lobe	8.5	9.8	8.5	6.4

The measurements show that the fossil is much too large to belong to the wolf now inhabiting Florida. It appears also to be too small to belong to the wolf Ænocyon dirus, and A. ayersi was but little if any smaller. The lower teeth of the latter species are not known. The accordance in measurements with those of C. occidentalis makes it probable that the fossil jaw found at Charleston belonged to a wolf not greatly different. With the materials at hand it is impossible to refer the jaw specifically.

Fig. 19.-Part of the right side of the lower jaw of an undetermined species of wolf, showing premolar. Charleston, S. C. ×1.

Within the city of Charleston the bed bearing vertebrate fossils is said to be several feet below tide-level. At Young Island, Wadmalaw Sound, nearly 20 miles southwest of Charleston, the top of the fossil-bearing stratum is at tide-level. This locality is otherwise known in the literature as Simmons’s. The only Pleistocene vertebrate fossils that the writer finds reported from the place are the fishes Lepisosteus osseus and Trichiurus lepturus.

In the region about Beaufort, the same fossil-bearing stratum, having about the same composition and the same elevation, is met with in many places. A few species of fossil vertebrates and many invertebrates have been secured. Here have been found Mammut americanum (p. [118]), Elephas columbi (p. [155]), Equus complicatus (p. [191]), and Megalonyx jeffersonii (p. [35]).

A brief notice will be taken of the few known localities where, away from the immediate coast, vertebrate fossils have come to light.

Tuomey, in 1848 (Rep. Geol. South Carolina, p. 177), in describing marls found near Darlington, on the farm of G. W. Dargan, and which he regarded as belonging to the Pliocene, reported the discovery of two perfect molars of a mastodon (p. [118]). The locality was in a swamp, and the bed of marl was covered with 3 or 4 feet of black mud. The teeth were immediately below the mud and enveloped in the marl. These teeth belonged to Mammut americanum and had been deposited at some time during the Pleistocene. At another place fragments of the antlers of a deer were found in the marl. In such cases the marls formed at one time the surface of the ground, or more probably the bottom of a swamp; and the Pleistocene bones and teeth might have been trampled down into the marl by living animals. On page [119] is given an account of another mastodon tooth discovered in the same county; and the teeth of a horse have been reported as having been found, associated with those of the mastodon (see p. [193]).

In Lee County, adjoining Darlington County on the southwest, at a locality “near Concord church,” between Lynch’s Creek and Black River, Tuomey (op. cit., p. 178) found a bed of Pliocene marl about 4 feet thick. From an excavation in this marl had been taken a tusk which Tuomey regarded as that of a mastodon, but this may have belonged to an elephant. In Berkeley County, at the head of Cooper River, there is, or was, a morass known as Biggin Swamp. This was passed through in constructing the Santee Canal. On page [156] is an account of the discovery of remains of Elephas columbi and of Mammut americanum; on page [162], the finding of a tooth of Elephas imperator. The discovery of the latter marks the age of the deposits as being about that of the Aftonian interglacial.

It has been seen that at many points along the coast there is a fossiliferous stratum varying from 2 to 8 feet. At most localities the fossils consist principally of marine animals, especially mollusks, and the deposits have evidently been laid down in salt water. Along Ashley River and at some localities in the region about Beaufort it seems evident that the surface was above, but not far above, sea-level, and that it formed a swamp on which a great variety of land animals could move about and feed. After death their bones would suffer the fate which befalls them in such cases. Most of them would undergo decay. Parts would be trampled into the muck, broken into fragments, and undergo still further decay. Only the most durable parts, as the teeth, antlers, and the more solid bones would usually stand a chance for preservation. Apparently, on this coast, no considerable parts of one skeleton have ever been found, or at least reported. In Charleston Museum are many bones of a skeleton of Megatherium, but it is uncertain where it was found.

The list of vertebrates referred to the Pleistocene of the South Carolina coast contains 33 species of mammals, of which 24 appear to be extinct. This high proportion of extinct species seems to confirm our reference of the fauna to the early Pleistocene. Besides the extinct forms, it is to be noted that within historical times the muskrat, beaver, and elk have not lived in the region about Charleston.

Pugh (Pleist. Deposits S. C., p. 66), from a study of the Pleistocene marine mollusca of South Carolina, has concluded that, if the Pleistocene sea-temperature differed at all from that of the present, it was slightly higher rather than slightly lower. It must be remembered, however, that the Pleistocene represented a very long period of time and that, farther north, the climate underwent great fluctuations. That these fluctuations would not have affected the temperature of the sea along the coast of the Carolinas is not probable. It is hardly supposable that capybaras and manatees lived about Charleston at the same time that the moose and the walrus were there. The latter had been forced down there during some glacial stage, possibly the Wisconsin; while the horses, tapirs, elephants, manatees, the mylodon, and the megatherium had their existence, we may suppose, about the time of the Aftonian. During this stage, too, lived the species of mollusks which Pugh has elaborated. It would seem that after that time some change took place in conditions, probably a slight elevation, so that little more than beds of unfossiliferous sand and marls were deposited.

Professor Earle Sloan, in his “Mineral Localities of South Carolina” (Bull. No. 2, ser. IV., South Carolina Geol. Surv.), has recognized the following divisions in the marine Pleistocene of the State:

6. Sea Island loams. 5. Wando clays and sands. 4. Accabee gravels. 3. Bohicket marl-sands. 2. Wadmalaw marl. 1. Ten-Mile sands.

Of these, the fossiliferous deposits referred to above appear to belong to the Wadmalaw marl. It may be confidently expected that somewhere along the South Carolina coast, beneath the beds bearing the vertebrate fossils, there will yet be discovered other Pleistocene deposits, probably shell marls, which belong to the Nebraska stage.