A further reference to this cave and its contents will be found on page [396].
3. Memphis, Shelby County.—In 1850 (Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. III, p. 280; Amer. Jour. Sci., ser. 2, vol. X, p. 58), Jeffries Wyman reported that a tooth and a claw of Megalonyx jeffersonii had been found in the “diluvium” of Mississippi River at Memphis. The tooth is a first upper molar of large size; the claw is that of the median digit. With these were found remains of mastodon, beaver, and Castoroides ohioensis.
4. Nashville, Davidson County.—From Mr. William Edward Myer, Nashville, Tennessee, the writer has received for examination a fragment of a tooth of a mylodon which was found near Nashville, in sand or gravel, along Cumberland River, beneath 30 feet of gravel. This tooth appears to be the left lower penultimate molar of Mylodon harlani, but it is in some ways different. The antero-inner face has a broad, shallow groove, while the outer face makes a smaller angle with the inner hinder face than in the tooth figured by Leidy.
The transverse section resembles that of the lower penultimate molar of M. sulcidens Cope (Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc., vol. XXXIV, plate X, fig. 4a), and somewhat the tooth regarded by Cope as the upper fourth molar of M. sulcidens (op. cit., plate XI, fig. 7). It is probable that M. sulcidens and M. renidens of Cope are synonyms of M. harlani, as Stock (Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., vol. VIII, p. 331) is inclined to believe.
The greatest length of a cross-section of the tooth found at Nashville is 27 mm.; the greatest width 14 mm. The tooth is the property of Mr. H. L. Ridge, of Nashville.
At the same locality have been found remains of Equus leidyi, E. complicatus, Mammut americanum, a camel (Camelops?), a species of deer, and some turtle bones. The deposit seems to belong to a stage not far removed from the Aftonian.
KENTUCKY.
(Map [3].)
1. Bigbone Lick, Boone County.—In 1831, Dr. Richard Harlan (Monthly Amer. Jour. Geol., vol. I, p. 77, plate III, figs. 1 to 3) described a left ramus of the lower jaw of a ground-sloth which had been brought to New York. This jaw he referred to his Megalonyx laqueatus (M. jeffersonii); but it was later shown by Owen (Zool. Beagle, 1840, p. 68) to belong to Mylodon, and he named it M. harlani in honor of Dr. Harlan. From Cooper (Monthly Amer. Jour. Geol., vol. I, p. 172) it is learned that this bone had formed part of the Finnell collection at Cincinnati. So far as the present writer sees, there was nothing in Harlan’s article to show where the jaw was discovered. In 1855 (Smithson. Contrib. Knowl., vol. VII, p. 47, plate XIV, figs. 1, 2), Leidy further described and illustrated the specimen and stated that it was found at Bigbone Lick. In 1903, Barnum Brown (Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. XIX, p. 511) stated that Harlan’s specimen ought to be in Columbia University, but it could not be found. It is more probable that it was destroyed in a fire in the old American Museum of Natural History.
In his report on Bigbone Lick (op. cit., p. 171), Cooper stated that he had seen in the “Western Museum,” Cincinnati, a large humerus of a megalonyx. Cooper further wrote that he and a companion had found at the lick a metacarpal bone which he supposed belonged to the same animal. The humerus was described and figured by Harlan (Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., ser. 1, vol. VI, p. 277, plate XIII, fig. 10). Cooper (op. cit., p. 172) mentions other bones of Megalonyx found at Bigbone Lick, but some may have belonged to Mylodon. This is the case with the fragment of lower jaw with 4 teeth which became the type of Mylodon harlani, as above mentioned. In Princeton University there is an ungual phalanx 167 mm. long, 66 mm. high, and 43 mm. thick at the middle of the height. This is labeled as having been found at Bigbone Lick. A list of the species discovered at this place will be found on page [403].