Somewhere on the coast of Maine have been found specimens of the fish Mallotus villosus (Gould, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. III, 1848, p. 67). At Charlotte, Vermont, a white whale, Delphinapterus vermontanus, was found many years ago (p. [19]). Some bovid teeth were found many years ago at Gardiner, Maine, and referred to Bison bison, but it is now believed that they are teeth of the domestic ox. However, Dr. G. M. Allen has reported from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, teeth of a young bison (p. [266]). At Woodbury, Washington County, Vermont, at a depth of 7 feet, an antler and a piece of the upper jaw with five molars of Rangifer caribou (p. [244]) have been discovered (Rep. Geol. Surv. Vermont, vol VI, p. 7). Mastodons have been discovered in Massachusetts at Coleraine and Shrewsbury (p. [47]). Many years ago a tooth and a tusk and some bones of an elephant were found at Mount Holly, Vermont (p. [148]); the writer refers the animal to Elephas columbi. An undetermined elephant has been found in Vermont at Richmond (p. [167]). Walrus remains have been recovered at Addison Point (p. [23]), Andrews Island (p. [23]), Gardiner (p. [23]), and Portland (p. [24]), all in Maine; off Portsmouth, New Hampshire (p. [25]); and on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts (p. [25]). At the latter place a tooth supposed to belong to the hooded seal (p. [26]) was found long ago. With respect to the specimens found at this place there is some doubt as to their geological age. With the exception that the reindeer bones (p. [244]) found near New Haven may be of pre-Wisconsin age, no Pleistocene vertebrate fossils older than Late Wisconsin appear to have been discovered anywhere in Connecticut. As shown elsewhere (p. [48]), there were found long ago at Sharon, Litchfield County, remains which were identified as those of mammoth, but these have since been regarded as those of the common mastodon. Only a single vertebra was preserved.

Fig. 6.—Probable preglacial drainage of the Upper Ohio. From Leverett.

Mastodons have been found in four other places, Cheshire, New Britain, Bristol, and Farmington (pp. 47, 48). The animals which left their bones at those places certainly lived after the last glacial sheet had withdrawn from the State. As mentioned on page [291], Fairchild has found reasons for believing that, while the Wisconsin ice-sheet was withdrawing from the Hudson and Connecticut Valleys, the whole region was so depressed that these valleys became occupied by water at sea-level. In these waters there were laid down thick deposits which now stand at levels much above tide, varying, in Connecticut, from nearly 200 to about 300 feet. Map [31], reproduced from Professor Fairchild (Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., vol XXVIII, 1917, plate XI) is intended to show how wide an extent of territory along the Connecticut Valley was then submerged. It is probable that the emergence of these deposits was not accomplished until after the glacier had retired beyond the State.

It will be observed (map [6]) that the localities just mentioned, where the mastodons have been found, lie very close to or on the areas covered by the deposits mentioned. The pond in which the Farmington mastodon (fig. 6, No. 3) was buried is in a range of hills which must have stood as an island in the Connecticut inlet. While it is possible that mastodons lived on this island while the land was depressed, it is more likely that they lived there after it had been more or less elevated. Judging from the topographical maps, one may conclude that the mastodons that have been found at Cheshire (fig. 6, No. 1) and New Britain (fig. 6, No. 2) were buried in deposits that overlie those laid down at sea-level. Their time of existence must have been near the end of the Pleistocene. Too little is known about the mastodons reported from Bristol and Sharon to form any definite opinion about the stage of the Pleistocene when they lived; but it was probably after the withdrawal of the last ice-sheet.

NEW YORK.

From the geologist’s point of view there is hardly, if at all, another State which presents for solution more numerous or more interesting problems connected with the Pleistocene than does New York. Among these are the geography and topography of the State at the beginning of the Pleistocene; the number and identity of the glacial stages which affected its surface; the origin and development of the bordering Great Lakes, of the numerous interior lakes, and of the river courses, actual and abandoned. For a knowledge of these one must consult the various reports issued by the Geological Survey of the State; above all, the numerous and instructive papers that have been published by Professor H. L. Fairchild, of the University of Rochester.

For the student of Pleistocene vertebrate palæontology, the State of New York is not so attractive as some others; but it is far from being devoid of interest. Few species of vertebrates of Pleistocene age have been found in its deposits, and these, with one exception, belong to the latest episodes of the last glacial stage. So far as the writer is aware, the following list comprises all of the Pleistocene vertebrates known to have been found within the borders of the State; those marked with an asterisk (*) are now extinct:

Deposits of materials belonging to Pleistocene stages older than the Wisconsin are apparently of rare occurrence in the State. If existing they are usually concealed beneath the widely spread Wisconsin drift. On Long Island, Fuller (U. S. Geol. Surv. Prof. Paper 82) has described beds of gravels, sands, and clays, which he regards as belonging to the Nebraskan, Aftonian, Yarmouth, and Illinoian. None of these has furnished any vertebrate fossils. However, in 1866 (Smithson. Contrib. Knowl., vol. XV, art. 3, p. 16), Whittlesey reported that he had a tooth of a horse (p. [183]) found at Fort Schuyler, Throg’s Neck, 18 feet below the surface. This must have been lying beneath the Wisconsin drift. Inasmuch as Fuller has found the Manhassett formation, regarded as equivalent to the Illinoian, around Manhassett Bay, within 4 or 5 miles of Throg’s Neck, it seems entirely reasonable to suppose that deposits of similar or earlier age exist at Throg’s Neck.