9. Menomonie, Dunn County.—Professor S. Weidman, of the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey, informed the writer that in the brick clays used at Menominee had been found a part of a leg-bone of a mastodon. Dr. Weidman was kind enough to send the bone for examination. It proved to be the distal end of the right humerus, including the epiphysial part. The interior of the bone had been neatly excavated, as if by a tool of some kind, the marks of which remained, which proved to be the jaws of a wolf. He had evidently been after the marrow and had scraped out all of the part filled by cancellated bone. The explanation appears to be that the mastodon had in some way broken an arm and had died. The wolves then proceeded to devour him; they could not have broken the limb themselves.
The finding of the bone shows that these clays belong to the Pleistocene. In a sand formation underlying the clays a caribou antler and bones of the Mackinaw trout, Cristivomer namaycush, have been found. Professor Weidman regards the clays as being of pre-Iowan age.
MARYLAND.
(Map [5].)
1. St. Mary’s City, St. Mary’s County.—The U. S. National Museum (No. 200) contains a fine upper left hindermost molar of Mammut americanum, labeled as presented by Mr. J. Varden and as found many years ago in a marl-bed at or near the town named. It was probably met in digging for Miocene marl, but was doubtless inclosed in overlying Pleistocene materials. According to Shattuck’s Pleistocene map of Maryland (Pleistocene volume, plate I), St. Mary’s City is situated on the Wicomico terrace; but because of absence of exact information whether the tooth was in the body of this deposit, or below it, or possibly in later materials above the Wicomico, its exact age can not be determined. Teeth from the locality were mentioned by Lucas on page 162 of the volume just cited. The geology of the county is described in a special volume of the Maryland Survey, 1907.
2. St. Clements, St. Mary’s County.—The U. S. National Museum contains a lower right hindermost molar, found long ago, apparently 1837, and presented by A. McWilliams. It is recorded as having been discovered in digging a mill-race at or above St. Clements. This race must quite certainly have been located along St. Clements Creek. The place is situated in the Wicomico plain; but possibly Talbot deposits extended up the creek farther than mapped.
3. Towson, Baltimore County.—Professor F. A. Lucas (Maryland Pliocene, Pleistocene vol., p. 163) stated that the collection of the Maryland Geological Survey contains a fine upper last molar of a mastodon found on the Ridgeley estate, at Hampton, near Towson, about 10 miles north of Baltimore. At present one can not determine the time during the Pleistocene when this tooth was part of a living creature.
4. Lane’s Creek?, Washington County.—The writer received, in 1912, a letter from Professor A. F. Bechdolt, of Bellingham, State of Washington, in which he stated that somewhat more than 37 years before, while teaching school in Washington County, Maryland, he saw the remains of a skull of a mastodon which some negroes had unearthed in making a mill-race, but they had broken it in pieces with sledgehammers. Professor Bechdolt recollected plainly the “mammillary face” of the tooth. The locality is described as being near the Pennsylvania line, south and somewhat west of Mercersberg, Pennsylvania, among the foot-hills of North Mountain, at a place locally known as “The Corner.” It appears probable that the locality was somewhere along Lane’s Creek.
4. Clear Spring, Washington County.—In circular No. 109, volume XIII, Johns Hopkins University, 1893, pages 26, 27, is an account of the finding of a mastodon tooth in 1863. It was discovered after a storm, lying on a pile of driftwood, in Conococheague Creek, at a point 2.5 miles south of Clear Spring, and a mile north of the entry of the creek into Potomac River. The tooth is in the collection of Johns Hopkins University.