The Pleistocene of North America / and its vertebrated animals from the states east of the Mississippi River and from the Canadian provinces east of longitude 95°

by Oliver Perry Hay

5. Riverhead, Suffolk County.—In 1842 (Zool. of New York, Mamm., p. 103), DeKay stated that in the year 1823 more than half of a lower jaw, with the teeth, of a mastodon had been found on the south beach, about 4 miles east of Riverhead, between high and low water. This fossil was mentioned by Dr. John M. Clarke in 1904 (N. Y. State Mus., Bull. 69, p. 923); also by J. C. Brevoort in 1859 (Proc. Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sci., vol. XII, p. 233). This vicinity was evidently submerged while the foot of the glacier was in Long Island. Only after the emergence of the island did the animal probably have its existence.

6. Morrisania, New York County.—In 1885, Dr. N. L. Britton (Trans. N. Y. Acad. Sci., vol. V, p. 15) reported the discovery of a large portion of a mastodon’s tusk in a cellar excavation in Morrisania 3 years previously. Here, as in similar cases, one can not be certain that the tusk was not that of an elephant.

7. New York City.—In 1891 (Science, vol. XVIII, p. 342), Professor R. P. Whitfield recorded the finding of a supposed mastodon tusk at the upper end of New York Island. It was found at a depth of 16 feet below mean low-water mark, embedded in peat, with the socket end downward. It was met with in excavating the Harlem ship-canal and at the mouth of Dyckman’s Creek, an artificial waterway. The location is given as 15 feet from the north side of the canal and 10 feet west of the center of Broadway. At this particular spot there was found at the surface from 4 to 6 feet of meadow sod, with roots, etc. Below this was 12 feet of incipient pure peat, lying on 18 to 20 inches of sandy clay, which itself reposed on limestone. The tusk was in the peat, with its base in the sand. It appeared to have settled from above through the peat.

8. Hartsdale, Westchester County.—In 1908, Dr. John M. Clarke (60th Ann. Rep. New York State Mus., for 1906, p. 60), reported that a tooth and some small fragments of bone of a mastodon had been found on the property of W. H. Fish of Hartsdale. No other information was given.

9. New Antrim, Rockland County.—In 1818 (Cuvier’s Essay Orig. Earth, p. 390, plate VI, figs. 1 to 4), Samuel L. Mitchill stated that he had received a set of grinding teeth which had been found at the place named. It is described as being 11 miles west of the Hudson River and 32 miles from New York. The teeth had been found in mud at a depth of 3 feet. They are mentioned in J. D. Godman’s “American Natural History.”

10. Arden, Orange County.—In 1903 (New York State Mus. Bull. 69, p. 926), Dr. John M. Clarke stated that a tusk and a few other bones of a mastodon had been found at this place. In 1908 (66th Ann. Rep. New York State Mus., vol. I, p. 61), he gives the further information that the locality was on lands of Mr. E. H. Harriman. Only 2 teeth, some ribs, and a few fragments were secured. The soil was a peat or vegetable mold.

11. Monroe, Orange County.—In 1903 (op. cit., p. 926), Clarke reported that about the year 1888 mastodon bones were found on land of Martin Konnight. Clarke himself continued excavations in 1901. About half of the skeleton was secured in all. These bones are now in the New York State Museum at Albany. They lay beneath 3 feet of clayey muck, at the bottom of a pond from 3 to 10 feet deep.

12. Chester, Orange County.—In 1818 (Cuvier’s Essay, etc., p. 376, plate VII, figs. 1 to 4), Samuel L. Mitchill presented an account of the exhumation in 1817 of a part of a mastodon skeleton at Chester. This had been originally discovered in a ditch made through a wet meadow. The surface soil was underlain by about 6 feet of black peat, and the bones lay in this at a depth of about 4 feet; beneath was a stratum of coarse vegetation. No marl underlay this muck. The upper jaw with teeth and tusks, lower jaw with teeth, shoulder-blade, vertebræ, and parts of the limbs were secured. An account of this discovery is to be found in Godman’s “American Natural History.” J. C. Warren, in the second edition of his monograph on the mastodon, has some remarks on the food of this mastodon. In 1909 (Trans. N. Y. Acad. Sci., vol. XVIII, p. 147, plate), Dr. E. O. Hovey made a contribution to the history of this specimen. What became of the bones is not known.

13. Salisbury Mills, Orange County.—In 1903 (op. cit., p. 926), Clarke gives a brief account of a part of a mastodon skeleton which, in 1879, was found at this place, 9 miles southwest of Newburgh. It now forms the larger part of a mount in the American Museum of Natural History, New York. The present writer has no further information regarding this specimen.

14. New Windsor, Orange County.—In the Kansas City Review of Science and Industry, volume III, 1879, page 241, is an item concerning the finding of a mastodon at this place. Nearly all the bones were secured. It was stated that a black vein of muck about 20 feet thick rested on a bed of blue clay. The bones lay at depths varying from 2 to nearly 5 feet from the surface.