1. Alligator or Crocodylus sp. indet. 2. Blarina brevicauda?. 3. Vespertilio grandis. 4. Vespertilio sp. indet. 5. Myotis sp. indet. 6. Ursus vitabilis. 7. Ursus americanus?. 8. Canis armbrusteri. 9. Canis sp. indet. 10. Vulpes? sp. indet. 11. Mustela vison?. 12. Gulo luscus?. 13. Taxidea sp. indet. 14. Lynx sp. indet. 15. Mammut americanum. 16. Equus sp. indet. (p. [189]). 17. Tapirus haysii? (p. [204]). 18. Platygonus cumberlandensis (p. [220]) 19. P. intermedius (p. [220]). 20. P. vetus? (p. [220]). 21. Mylohyus exortivus (p. [220]). 22. M. pennsylvanicus (p. [220]). 23. Odocoileus sp. indet. 24. Taurotragus americanus. 25. Ochotona princeps?. 26. Lepus americanus?. 27. Lepus sp. indet. 28. Sciurus hudsonicus. 29. Sciuropterus alpinus?. 30. Marmota monax?. 31. Castor sp. indet. 32. Neotoma sp. indet. 33. Microtus chrotorrhinus?. 34. Synaptomys borealis?. 35. Synaptomys sp. indet. 36. Peromyscus leucopus?. 37. Napæozapus sp. indet. 38. Erethizon sp. nov.
On account of the present unstudied condition of the collection, it is difficult to reach conclusions that are satisfactory. It appears, however, that there are at least 6 hitherto undescribed species, one-fifth of the whole number. Another 6, if at all correctly determined, indicate a wide removal from their ranges of the present day. Lepus americanus now lives well toward the north, coming down to Saginaw, Michigan. Ochotona princeps lives in the Rocky Mountains of British America. Synaptomys borealis is known only from the region about Great Bear Lake, Mackenzie, Canada. Microtus chrotorrhinus has its habitat in Quebec and the northeastern United States. The species of Napæozapus are Canadian in their range, but descend to southeastern Maryland and to North Carolina in the mountains. Sciuropterus alpinus is found from Alaska to Hudson Bay, but descends on the Pacific coast to southern California. This northern habitat of so many supposed species suggests that the fissure received its contents during one of the glacial stages, and this may be the case. However, it is not unlikely that these species and some others are really undescribed ones. One may reasonably expect to find in a fauna containing Equus and Tapirus a much higher percentage of extinct species than Gidley has recorded.
The most remarkable member of the fauna is Taurotragus americanus, a species closely related to the eland of southern Africa (Gidley, Smiths. Misc. Coll., vol. LX, No. 27). Its presence in western Maryland gives a vivid impression of the widely extended journey that some animals have made from one continent to others. The same species has since been found in collections made at Alton, Illinois (p. [339]), and at Kimmswick, Missouri (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. LVIII, p. 113).
According to the author’s views, the fauna found at Cumberland, like that of localities in western Virginia, belongs to a time somewhere about the middle of the Pleistocene. Most of the species may be supposed to have lived there during the warm Sangamon stage; others, as the wolverine, at a somewhat earlier or later time when the climate was cooler.
VIRGINIA.
For the student of Pleistocene vertebrate palæontology, as for the geologist, Virginia may be divided into three physiographic regions, the Coastal Plain, the Piedmont Plateau, and the Appalachian Mountains. The line which divides the Coastal Plain from the Piedmont Plateau begins at the southern boundary of the State, at about 77° 31′ longitude. The towns on or not far from this nearly north-and-south line are Emporia, Petersburg, Richmond, Hanover, and Fredericksburg. Near the latter the line inclines slightly eastward and passes a few miles west of Alexandria and Washington, D. C. The Coastal Plain is much less elevated than the region west of it and consists of deposits of Mesozoic or Cenozoic age, and much of it is covered by Pleistocene materials. The Plateau region is elevated and consists mostly of Palæozoic rocks, mostly metamorphosed into a crystalline condition. The Appalachian region presents nearly parallel ranges of mountains and intervening valleys.
For a knowledge of the Pleistocene geology of the Coastal Plain the reader should consult Bulletin iv, 1912, of the Virginia Geological Survey. The authors who discuss the physiography and geology of this region are William B. Clark and Benjamin L. Miller. On pages 19 to 45 they present a very full bibliography of the geological literature pertaining to this region. Additional valuable assistance may be obtained from the various folios issued by the United States Geological Survey, but unfortunately not many species of vertebrate animals have been found on this Coastal Plain of Virginia.
In Bulletin IV, already mentioned, Clark and Miller recognize the presence of three terraces belonging to the Pleistocene. To these are given the names applied in Maryland and North Carolina to what are regarded as equivalent terraces. The oldest of these, most elevated and farthest from the coast, is the Sunderland; eastward of this lies the Wicomico; the Talbot is the youngest and lowest and borders the coast. Unfortunately, the geologists referred to did not map the areas occupied individually or collectively by these terraces. They accept the theory that these terraces were laid down in the sea. It is admitted, nevertheless, that no marine fossils are found in deposits of the Sunderland and Wicomico. In the Talbot, 26 species of marine mollusks have been reported from Talbot deposits of the Dismal Swamp Canal, all regarded as belonging to living species. It will be recollected that Woolman (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1898, p. 414), in a study of mollusks collected in the Dismal Swamp Canal, found 7 extinct species in a collection of 49 species, equal to about 16 per cent. It is, however, not unlikely that the collections had been dredged up from deeper deposits.
In Bulletin V of the Virginia Geological Survey, on page 25, Sanford stated that the Talbot had a width of 30 miles at the south. On consulting Stephenson’s map of the superficial formations of the Coastal Plain in North Carolina (North Carolina Geol. Surv., vol. III, plate XIII) it will be seen that this corresponds quite exactly with the width of the Pamlico formation at that line. For the writer’s views on the terraces named the reader may consult page 346 on the geology of Maryland.
On page [113] is recorded the discovery of a tooth of a mastodon in a marsh near Disputanta, in Prince George’s County. Not enough is known about the geology of the region to say more than that the deposit belongs to the Pleistocene.