TENNESSEE.

(Figure [23.])

There are not many States which furnish fewer Pleistocene deposits of any considerable area than does Tennessee. Lying, as it does, away from the sea, there are no marine Pleistocene beds; situated beyond the glacial area, there are no glacial-drift deposits; and almost half of the State, the eastern, being mountainous, with rivers running in narrow valleys, there has been little opportunity for accumulation of loose Pleistocene materials. The U. S. Geological Survey has published about 25 folios describing the geology of this mountainous part of Tennessee. One will search these folios, perhaps in vain, for any mention of Pleistocene deposits and for traces of these on the maps. Now and then mention is made of narrow strips of alluvium along some of the larger rivers; nevertheless there are evidences that in some of these strips there are Pleistocene deposits. From the mountainous region westward to near Mississippi River there have doubtless been, during the Pleistocene, better opportunities for deposition of alluvium along the river courses, but such deposits have been little studied. Along the great river forming the western boundary there is a band, 10 to perhaps 25 miles in width, overlain by loess. This may attain a depth along the river varying from 20 to 70 feet, but away from the river it thins out to a feather-edge (Glenn, Water Supply Paper 114, U. S. Geol. Surv.). Up to this time, however, it has furnished few, if any, Pleistocene fossils.

Notwithstanding the paucity of Pleistocene areas in the mountainous portion of Tennessee, this region has furnished a considerable number of species of Pleistocene vertebrates, and bids fair to furnish its due proportion (fig. 23). These species occur, not in water-laid or wind-laid deposits, but in caves which abound in the limestones of that region. In 1918 (Resources of Tenn., vol. VIII, pp. 85–142), Mr. Thomas L. Bailey located and described more than 100 caves of considerable size. Many had been worked to obtain saltpeter. Bones have been reported from a few of them; probably bones had been met with in others, but were not regarded as important. In these caves (and in others yet to be discovered) may hereafter be found numerous remains of animals. Other sources for such fossils are the crevices that are sometimes opened up in quarrying operations. Caves and crevices of this kind are found in the Alleghany Mountain region from northern Pennsylvania to Lookout Mountain in Tennessee, and from them there is already known an extensive Pleistocene fauna.

Beginning in the northeastern corner of the State, a brief survey will be made of the localities and fossils which concern us. At Kingsport, in Sullivan County (fig. 23, 1) the writer has learned of the finding of a mastodon tooth (p. [127]), but beyond the fact that it was owned by Mr. D. M. Lafitte, the writer has been able to learn nothing.

From Bristol, Sullivan County (fig. 23, 2), in the northeastern corner of the State, there has been sent to the U. S. National Museum a fragment of a maxilla containing two teeth of a tapir. This is referred to Tapirus haysii. No details regarding the place of discovery or of the geological conditions are known (p. [209]).

From Hawkins County, at a locality not specified (fig. 23, 3) another mastodon tooth has been reported by Dr. S. W. McCallie (Science, ser. 2, vol. XX, p. 333) (p. [127]). These announcements show at least that these animals could exist in those rough and elevated regions. From crevices in a marble quarry near Rogersville (fig. 23, 4), Hawkins County, there were sent many years ago to the U. S. National Museum a tooth of the horse Equus leidyi (p. [201]); and a canine tooth of a very large peccary, Mylohyus setiger (p. [222]). The same peccary has been secured from Cavetown, Maryland.

Fig. 23.—Localities where fossil vertebrates have been found in Tennessee.

1. Kingsport, Sullivan County. Mammut americanum (p. [127]). 2. Bristol, Sullivan County. Tapirus haysii (p. [209]). 3. —— Hawkins County. Mammut americanum (p. [127]). 4. Rogersville, Hawkins County. Equus leidyi, Mylohyus setiger (p. [394]). 5. Whitesburg, Hamblen County. 19 species (p. [395]). 6. Mossy Creek, Jefferson County. Mammut americanum (p. [127]). 7. Zirkel’s Cave, Jefferson County. Tapir, peccary, bear, etc., (p. [396]). 8. Dandridge, Jefferson County. Mammut americanum (p. [127]). 9. Near Knoxville, Knox County. Mammut americanum (p. [127]). 10. Lookout Mountain, Hamilton County. Equus littoralis, Mylodon? sp. indet., Tapirus sp. indet., etc., (p. [396]). 11. Elroy, VanBuren County. Megalonyx jeffersonii, etc. (p. [397]). 12. 11 miles west of Nashville. Mammut americanum (p. [127]). 13. 11 miles southeast of Nashville. Mammut americanum (p. [127]). 14. Nashville, Davidson County. Equus leidyi, E. complicatus?, Camelops? sp. indet., Mylodon harlani, Odocoileus sp. indet. (p. [399]). 15. Columbia, Maury County. Elephas sp. indet. (p. 181.) 17. Memphis, Shelby County. Megalonyx sp. indet., Castoroides ohioensis, Mammut americanum (p. 400.)

In the U. S. National Museum is a collection of remains of vertebrate animals made about 1885 by Mr. Ira Sayles, a collector for the U. S. Geological Survey, from a point about a mile north of Whitesburg, Hamblen County (fig. 23, 5). Some masses of the matrix which contained the bones accompany the collection. This matrix is a red earth such as is often found in the floor of caves and in fissures in limestone, the result of the decomposition of the calcareous rock. Some fragments are to a great extent made up of broken bones. It is evident, however, that there is now no cave at that place. Sayles suggested that the bones were “kitchen-middens” and that there had been an old fortification there. Possibly a cave or a fissure once existed there and the rock inclosing it may have dissolved away, leaving the floor.

In this collection the writer has found the following species; these were described in 1920 (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. LVIII, pp. 85–95, plates III, IV; text-figs. 1–3). Those preceded by an asterisk are extinct.

List of species.

In this list there are 19 species, of which 8 are extinct. The latter form, therefore, 42 per cent of the whole list. This ratio appears to indicate a time about the middle of the Pleistocene. There are no forms that require an earlier date and there is good reason for believing that the horses and the tapir did not exist after the last glacial stage, perhaps not after the Sangamon interglacial.

It is interesting to find in eastern Tennessee the remains of Elephas primigenius. The discovery of teeth of this animal at Beaufort, North Carolina, in eastern Tennessee, and especially in Texas, proves that the range of that species extended even farther south in the New World than it did in the old. It is not improbable that the animal withdrew to the south during one or more of the glacial stages. However, none of the other species found at Whitesburg suggests a cooler climate than now prevails there.

It is possible that some of the forms referred to existing species are really extinct. The teeth identified as those of Odocoileus virginianus are smaller than those usually found in recent individuals. The deer Sangamona fugitiva appears in a collection made at Cavetown, Maryland, and in another made at Alton, Illinois, in or beneath deposits of loess that are believed to have been laid down about the time of the Sangamon stage.

In Jefferson County mastodon remains have been found at two places, Dandridge (fig. 23, 8) and Mossy Creek. No details are known about the first case; in the case of the tooth found 3 miles south of Mossy Creek (fig. 23, 6) it is stated that it was discovered at a depth of 6 feet and beneath a white oak stump. Between the two villages, on the left bank of Dumplin Creek, 5 miles above its mouth, is Zirkel’s Cave. From this cave (fig. 23, 7) Mercer (Dept. Amer. Archæol. Univ. Penn., 1896) reported the discovery of remains of tapir (p. [395]), peccary (p. [223]), bear, and small rodents; but to what species they belonged is not known. The tapir and the peccary indicate Pleistocene times. The bear probably belonged to the same epoch.

At a point 7 miles southeast of Knoxville (fig. 23, 9) Professor S. W. McCallie reported the finding of a mastodon tooth beneath 30 inches of clay. At Lookout Mountain (p. 395, fig. 23, 10) have been secured a tooth of a horse, probably Equus littoralis (p. [201]), remains of tapir and probably of Mylodon (p. [43]). Just where the horse-tooth was found is not known. The tapir was found in a cave on the left bank of Tennessee River, 0.25 mile below the mouth of Chattanooga Creek (Mercer, as cited above; also in Amer. Naturalist, vol. XXVIII, p. 355). Mercer’s accounts are brief and were intended only as preliminary reports. From him, through Miss Harriet Newell Wardle, of Philadelphia, the writer has received a letter in which are given some details about the investigation of this cave in 1893 and 1896.

Dr. Mercer extended his trench inward from the entrance a distance of about 50 feet and downward to the rocky bottom of the cave. He recognized the presence of three layers, as follows: (1) top layer, from 6 to 8 inches deep, containing relics of both white man and Indian; (2) middle layer, about 2 feet thick, containing evidence of Indian only; (3) red cave earth, varying from one to several feet in thickness, according to the uneven conditions of the cave floor. This latter layer was subdivided into an upper zone (a) about a foot deep, which showed evidences of intrusion of bones and refuse from the overlying layer, and (b) the undisturbed red earth which contained bones of bats and perhaps of some other animals. In the upper zone (a) of the red-earth layer Mercer found a jawbone and loose teeth of Tapirus haysii (p. [209]) and a jawbone of Mylodon (p. [43]) without teeth, both as identified by Professor Cope. Later, Cope became doubtful as to the Mylodon bone. In this upper zone of red earth, “within a few varying inches of the depth of the tapir specimen above or below it,” Mercer found bones of cave rats (Neotoma), marmot (Marmota), squirrel, deer, opossum, teeth and fragments of the skull of a large unidentified mammal, a small and a large bird, wild turkey, two species of turtles, frogs, and drum-fish. The skull and other bones of the large unidentified mammal had plainly been cracked to secure the marrow, and were otherwise crushed and splintered. Also, as many as 493 hornstone chips were found, besides bones rubbed to a point, and 10 potsherds. It becomes a question how the tapir bone and teeth and perhaps the bone of the mylodon and the evidences of the Indian’s presence got into this upper layer of red earth. Mercer “thought it reasonable to conclude that the tapir had been intruded into the red earth from the upper layer and had been in contact with the Indians.” This appears to indicate the idea that the tapir had existed there at a late period, probably after the Pleistocene; but the evidences appear to show that this animal lived in the United States not later than about the Sangamon stage of the Pleistocene. It is more probable that the tapir remains had not been disturbed and that the relics of man had, by some means, made their way down into the red earth. There remains also the possibility that Indians and tapirs and mylodons had lived together in that region during the middle of the Pleistocene and while the upper foot of red clay was being deposited. The presence of the other animals mentioned by Mercer does not disprove this possibility, for all of them pretty certainly existed there during the middle Pleistocene.

Not far from Elroy, Van Buren County (fig. 23, 11) there is an interesting cavern known as Bigbone Cave. This and the bones which it has furnished are now to be described.

Mercer (Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc., vol. XXXVI, pp. 36–70) found that in the greater part of this cave the nitrous earth that had formed the floor had been removed to such an extent that on the walls its stains remained at a height of one’s waist. Wherever any of this deposit remained it was exceedingly dry and any disturbance of it produced a cloud of dust. It appears to have consisted mostly of the dung and excretions of animals, such as bats and cave rats. The preservation of the cartilage and horny sheaths of the claw was due to this dryness of the atmosphere. Where Mercer found the bones he recognized four layers, to represent which he published a figure (op. cit., p. 47, fig. 4). This is here reproduced with unimportant changes (fig. 24). On top there was a layer from 2 to 3 inches thick which had resulted from the disturbance produced by the passing of white men and possibly to some extent of Indians. With the dust were mingled remains of charred vegetable substances that had been used as torches.

Fig. 24.—Diagram showing a vertical section of the gallery in Bigbone Cave near Elroy, Van Buren County, Tenn. Adapted from Mercer.

The second layer was 2 to 5 feet deep and consisted almost entirely of well-preserved dried excrements of cave rats (Neotoma) and of porcupines (Erethizon). In it were observed nuts, sticks, fur, and moss. The only animal remains found in this layer were the bones of Megalonyx (p. [42]), quills and coprolites of Erethizon dorsatum, coprolites and a jaw of a cave rat referred to Neotoma magister, and jaws of two bats, Adelonycteris fuscus and Myotis subulatus (Vespertilio gryphus of Mercer). Some traces were found of an undetermined herbivorous mammal about as large as a bear. With the lot of Megalonyx bones from this cave which were described by Harlan there were remains referred to Bos (Bison), Ursus, Cervus (Odocoileus?), and a human metatarsal; but these were reported as having been picked up on the surface and may therefore have belonged to quite recent skeletons.

Besides the animal remains found by Mercer in his second layer, there were present quantities of vegetable matter belonging to several species. All, however, were forms yet living in that region.

Mercer’s third layer appears to have consisted of dry excrements which had become somewhat hardened. Its thickness was a foot. In it were found vegetable matter, some bat jaws and fur, and the carcass of a “window fly.” The fourth layer consisted of a fine water-laid clay which on drying had contracted and broken up into small angular masses. The interstices appear to have been filled by materials soaking down from the upper layers of excrement. No organisms were found in it.

Mercer concluded that the sloth remains were geologically recent, and this may be true. Megalonyx jeffersonii has been found in the northern States in deposits overlying the Wisconsin drift, and it is quite reasonable to suppose that the animal existed in Tennessee up to as late a time as it did in Ohio and Illinois. The persistence of the cartilages of the sloth, and the framework of the window fly which lay below the sloth bones, naturally suggests a comparatively short time; but if, through the dryness of the cave, they could endure a thousand years, they might possibly endure several thousand. One must consider also the length of time required for 1.5 or 2 feet of cave floor to be built up from the excrements of bats, porcupines, and cave rats, but there is no reason to refer the time back further than about the close of the Wisconsin stage.

On another page (p. [127]) is presented the little that is known about the remains of two mastodons which have been reported from the region about Nashville. One tooth was found 11 miles west of the city (fig. 23, 12); a part of a skeleton at a point 11 miles southeast of it (fig. 23, 13). A tooth of an undetermined species of elephant was found long ago near Columbia, Maury County (p. 395, fig. 23, 15). According to Folio 95 of the U. S. Geological Survey, there are some narrow strips of alluvium along Duck River, at Columbia. The tooth may or may not have been found in this alluvium. Apparently in the neighborhood of Gallatin, Sumner County (fig. 23, 16), was found before 1835, at a depth of 40 feet, a tooth of an elephant (p. [181]). The information furnished by the tooth, as reported, is not worth much.

In June 1920, the writer received from Mr. William Edward Myer, of Nashville, a small box of fossils, collected near Nashville (fig. 23, 14). The exact locality is given as being about 300 yards upstream from Lock A, in Cumberland River. According to a sketch sent by Mr. Myer and here reproduced (fig. 25), there are loose deposits about 30 feet in thickness lying upon bed-rock. This bed-rock is found at about the level of low-water in the river. On this rock there is found first a bed of gravel, which, to judge from Myer’s sketch, is 2 or 3 feet in thickness. Above this comes a bed of sand of about the same thickness. The rest of the 30 feet is composed of gravel; and this rises to the level of the flood-plain. In the lowermost stratum, the bed of gravel, were found a tooth of Equus leidyi (p. [201]), a part of a femur of a horse of large size (p. [201]), and an antler of a small and probably unnamed deer (p. [234]). This antler resembles those of some of the Central American species of Odocoileus. In the next stratum above were found some indeterminable fragments of turtle bones, a tooth of a young mastodon (p. [127]), and a calcaneum of a large camel (p. [225]), belonging probably to the genus Camelops. In October 1920, Mr. Myer sent from the same locality a part of a molar of Mylodon harlani (p. [43]). These remains appear to the writer to indicate that the deposits are of early Pleistocene age, about that of the first interglacial.

Fig. 25.—Section on Bank of Tennessee River at Nashville.

Somewhere about Memphis (fig. 23, 17), were found, about the middle of the last century, some scanty remains of a young mastodon, a bone of Megalonyx (p. [43]), and a part of a lower jaw of Castoroides (p. [280]). Jeffries Wyman thought that these remains had been found in diluvium of the Mississippi River. It appears probable that they were found in the loess, which is well developed at that locality. Some exactness in reporting the locality would have led to the solution of this question.