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 [5].)

1. Beaufort, Beaufort County.—In the region about Beaufort numerous remains of mastodons have been found, most of which are to be referred to Mammut americanum. In the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia the writer has seen a fine left lower last molar of this species. The collection of Rutgers College contains a part of a tooth from Coosaw River. At Princeton University there is an upper second true molar from somewhere about Beaufort. Field Natural History Museum has 3 teeth of Mammut, recorded as having been found in the phosphate bed at Beaufort.

Leidy (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1870, p. 98) stated he had seen, in the collection of C. N. Shepard at Amherst College, bones, fragments of jaws, and teeth of mastodon from the marl at the head of Hilton Harbor, on St. Helena Island, on which Beaufort is situated. Among these were 2 inferior tusks about 10 inches long and 2 inches in diameter at the base. If the molars which accompanied them had differed from those of Mammut americanum, Leidy would have been quick to note the fact. Evidently the bones and teeth mentioned by Leidy are those now in the mounted skeleton at Amherst College, described by Professor F. B. Loomis (Amer. Jour. Sci., ser. 3, vol. XLV, p. 437, figs. 1, 3, 4) as Mastodon americanus. This was a very large animal and the two large lower tusks show that it belonged to Mammut progenium.

In the Academy’s collection at Philadelphia is a large hindermost molar, 180 mm. long and 96 mm. wide, which had been sent to the Academy in company with the type of Gomphotherium rugosidens.

2. Ashley River, above Charleston, Charleston County.—In 1860 (Holmes’s Post-Pl. Foss. South Carolina, p. 109), Leidy stated that fragments of teeth and bones had been found in the Post-Pliocene deposits of Ashley River, apparently referable to Mastodon ohioticus (Mammut americanum). In a footnote to this statement, F. S. Holmes says that since Leidy’s statement was written several perfect teeth have been discovered, and referred to plate XIX, figures 1, 2, 3. These figures illustrate the teeth which belonged to Dr. L. F. Klipstein, Christ Church. In the preface to Holmes’s work he refers to the teeth on this plate as being those associated with teeth of a horse, remains of a deer, and a piece of pottery. On page III of the introduction there is further explanation of the discovery. Exactly where the swamp which Klipstein was draining was situated seems not to have been stated, but the context appears to indicate that it was somewhere along Ashley River.

In 1918 (Amer. Jour. Sci., ser. 3, vol. XLV, p. 438, fig. 2, not “fig. 3”) Professor Loomis described and figured 2 lower tusks, found in Nine Mile Bottom, 9 miles above Charleston, probably along Ashley River. On page 441 Loomis correctly described these, except that what he called enamel is only a dense outer layer of dentine. Evidently these tusks had been used for punching against hard objects. One may surmise that the animal had been accustomed to bark trees with them.

Leidy (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1870, p. 98) states that he saw in the collection of C. N. Shepard, at Amherst College, remains of mastodons, etc., which had been found on Ashley River.

In the collections at Charleston, both the private ones and that of the Charleston Museum, there are teeth of Mammut americanum, but records of exact localities are usually wanting.

3. Head of Cooper River, Berkeley County.—John Drayton, in his “View of South Carolina,” in 1802, page 39, plate, figure 4, mentions the discovery of fossil bones in Biggin Swamp, made in digging a canal between Santee and Cooper Rivers. It appears probable that this swamp is not far from Monks Corner. Drayton’s figure shows that the tooth was one of Mammut americanum. It is said to have been buried at a depth of 8 or 9 feet. B. S. Barton (Archæologia Amer., 1814, pp. 22–23) stated that he had examined teeth of both mastodon and elephant from this swamp. George Turner (Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., vol. IV, 1899, p. 511) speaks of the discovery of bones of what is called the mammoth in the construction of the Santee and Cooper River Canal. Cuvier (Oss. Foss., ed. 4, vol. II, p. 275) stated that the naturalist M. Bose had witnessed the exhumation of 5 molars of mastodon during the excavation of the “canal de Caroline,” 15 miles from Charleston. They were found in pure sand at a depth of 3 feet. It is possible that there is here an error in the distance from Charleston.

4. Lee County.—Tuomey (Rep. Geol. Surv. South Carolina, 1848, p. 178) states that between Lynch’s Creek and Black River, “near Concord church,” he found a bed of Pliocene marl about 4 feet thick, which, like the Darlington deposit, rests on black shale. In an excavation made in this marl, he found a portion of a tusk of a mastodon. This might, indeed, have belonged to an elephant, but more probably to Mammut americanum.

5. Darlington County.—In 1848 (Rep. Geol. Surv. South Carolina, 1848, pp. 177–180), Tuomey reported that 2 perfect molars of Mastodon maximus (=Mammut americanum) had been found on land of G. W. Dargan, somewhere near Darlington. They were found in a swamp and covered with 3 or 4 feet of mud, but lying in a marl which he regarded as belonging to the Pliocene. One was sent to the college at Columbia. In a note to the geologist J. W. Foster (Proc. Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sci., vol. X, 1856, p. 167), Tuomey stated that he had placed in the cabinet of South Carolina College a fine tooth of mastodon, found in Darlington district. At an earlier date Robert W. Gibbes (same Proceedings, vol. III, 1850, p. 67) exhibited before the association teeth of a horse found at Darlington, associated with bones of Mastodon.