2. Bigbone Lick, Boone County.—It was at this place that was found the horn-core and attached part of skull which forms the type of Bison antiquus. It was a part of the Jefferson collection and was described by Leidy (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., vol. VI, 1852, p. 117). Richard Lydekker (Cat. Foss. Mamm. Brit. Mus., pt. 2, p. 27) wrote that there is in that museum a fragment of a right mandible, probably belonging to Bison latifrons. However, the identification is hardly to be relied on. Shaler (Geol. Surv. Kentucky, n. s., vol. III, p. 197) reported the finding of bones of Bison latifrons, but it is doubtful in what sense he used this name; and he did not indicate how these bones differed from those of other bisons. He probably had in mind B. antiquus. Hence the presence of the species with the widely spread horns at Bigbone Lick is doubtful.
A list of the species of mammals collected at this place will be found on page [403].
FINDS OF BISON BISON IN THE PLEISTOCENE OF EASTERN NORTH AMERICA.
ONTARIO.
(Map [27].)
1. North Bay, Nipissing County.—In the U. S. National Museum is a horn-sheath, found at this place. It was sent by Dr. Charles E. Cook, of Lockport, New York, who himself saw it thrown out of a ditch, about 5 feet deep, which was being made from the shore of the lake. The horn was found at a distance of 600 feet from the lake and in front of the Hotel Queen’s. It certainly belongs to the existing species, Bison bison. Whether the presence of the horn at that spot is due to the former existence of the American buffalo there or to its introduction by man it is impossible to say at present.
MASSACHUSETTS.
(Map [27].)
1. Orleans, Cape Cod.—In 1920 (Jour. Mamm., vol. I, pp. 161–164, figs. 1–3), Dr. G. M. Allen presented an account of the discovery of a maxilla containing the penultimate and the hindermost milk teeth of a calf of Bison bison, at Orleans, Cape Cod. This specimen had been collected about 20 years previously by Dr. A. W. Grabau and presented by him to the Boston Society of Natural History. The bone and teeth were found “wholly embedded in till about halfway up on a section of a glacial moraine, situated on Town Cove and about 70 or 80 feet high.” With the specimen were associated many fragments of the shells of the mollusk Venus. Dr. Allen suggested that this bison calf had either come to its end while wandering on the moraine or had more likely lived and died during the preceding Peoria interglacial stage. It might be questioned whether bones which had been buried and thereby become softened would have endured the rough treatment of a glacial mill.