10. Labelle, Lee County.—In the Florida Geological Survey is a right tibia of a mylodon, found on the bank of Caloosahatchee River, near Labelle, presented by Capt. F. H. Hendry. The total length is 266 mm.; on the inner border 236 mm. The width across the articulatory surface for the femur is 164 mm. The width at the middle of the length is 84 mm.; fore-and-aft diameter at the same place 38 mm. The side-to-side diameter of the surface for the astragalus is 57 mm. The bone is referred to Mylodon harlani.
11. See page [37].
ALABAMA.
(Map [3].)
1. Tuscumbia, Colbert County.—In his work on the “Extinct Sloth Tribe” in North America (Smithson. Contrib. Knowl., vol. VII, art. V, p. 6, plate XVI, fig. 13), Leidy, in recording the materials belonging to Megalonyx jeffersonii at his disposal, mentioned a supposed third upper molar, said to have come “from Tuscumbia County, Alabama.” This was an error, as the name of the town is Tuscumbia. The tooth had been loaned to him by Dr. Jeffries Wyman. Nothing more is known about its history. Mercer (Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc., vol. XXXVI, p. 38) stated that a well-preserved series of bones of Megalonyx had been sent to the Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia by Mr. Tuomey. They had been obtained in a cave somewhere in northern Alabama. Leidy does not mention this collection in his work just cited.
MISSISSIPPI.
(Map [3].)
1. Natchez, Adams County.—Dr. M. W. Dickeson (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1846, p. 106) exhibited before the Academy a large series of fossil bones secured by him near Natchez. Among these were noted especially what was described as an entire head with part of the lower jaw, and many parts of the skeleton of Megalonyx jeffersonii. This skull is still in the collection of the Academy. The lower jaw is missing. It appears that several skeletons were represented in Dickeson’s collection. These, as Dickeson stated, had been found in a tenacious blue clay which underlies what he called diluvial drift, but now regarded as being at least principally loess. Associated with this animal were remains of Ursus, Bos (Bison), Cervus (Odocoileus), Equus, and some other but undetermined genera.
In his “Second Visit to the United States of North America,” edition 2, 1850, volume II, p. 196, Lyell mentions the Megalonyx among other fossils found at Natchez. He states that the fossils found by Doctor Dickeson were obtained in the “Mammoth Ravine” 6 miles from Natchez.
In Southall’s “Recent Origin of Man,” 1875, page 552, is a statement made by Professor C. G. Forshey (as quoted from Foster’s “Prehistoric Races of the United States,” p. 61) in which he says that he visited the locality where the human pelvis was found and that it was situated in Bernard’s Bayou, 2.5 miles from Natchez.