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°Hay, Oliver Perry
Science
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°
Hay, Oliver Perry
Paleontology -- North America; Paleontology -- Pleistocene; Vertebrates, Fossil
Asa Gray (Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. II, 1848, p. 92) examined
wood which had been taken in the place occupied by the stomach of the
skeleton referred to. He found no differences between it and that of the
common hemlock spruce. While Gray speaks of this mastodon as being found
on Schooley’s Mountain, he evidently meant the ones found at
Hackettstown.
According to Maxwell’s account there was at the surface 6 inches of
vegetable deposit; below this was found about 6 inches of whitish sand;
while below this came a bed of pure muck from 4 to 6 feet in depth. In
this were buried the mastodon bones.
Lyell (Second Visit to U. S., ed. 3, vol. II, p. 363) mentions the
skeletons found at Hackettstown. Between the ribs had been found about 7
bushels of vegetable matter supposed to have been contained in the
stomach. He took some of it to London and had it examined
microscopically. It appeared to belong to the white cedar, _Thuja
occidentalis_.
By consulting Lewis and Kümmel’s geological map of New Jersey, it will
be seen that the locality where these mastodons were found is on the
Wisconsin moraine. Plates XLV and XLV _a_ of Salisbury’s report (vol. V,
Geol. Surv. New Jersey) present the topographical and geological details
of this region. A “mastodon pond” is there mapped which is doubtless the
one referred to above. We may be quite certain, therefore, that these
mastodons lived after the retirement of the Wisconsin ice-sheet.
A note, apparently by George Cook (Geol. New Jersey, 1868, p. 741),
stated that some years previously a mastodon tooth had been found 0.5
mile east of Vienna, 4 miles west of Hackettstown.
16. _Hope, Warren County._—A note, probably by George H. Cook, in his
“Geology of New Jersey,” 1868, page 741, stated that a part of a
mastodon skeleton had been found about 2 miles from Hope, on the road
leading to Johnsonsburg and on the farm of Charles Howell. This would be
northeast from Hope. On the New Jersey map referred to there is some
Wisconsin drift indicated near this place. The remains are probably of
late Wisconsin age.
17. _Greendell, Sussex County._—In Warren’s “Monograph on the Mastodon”
(first edition, page 174; second edition, page 200) is an extract taken
from the Sussex Register, of September 27, 1851, giving an account of
the finding of bones, jaws, and teeth of a mastodon on the farm of
Timothy H. Cook, near Greenville. This town was later called Cuttoff and
this name has recently been changed to Greendell. In Cook’s “Geology of
New Jersey,” 1868, page 741, the farm was said to belong to Jacob Voss.
In a bog which had been drained a fire was made on a stump of a tree.
The fire burned the roots, and the bones of the animal became exposed.
The bones of the head especially were apparently very near the surface.
The town is on the Lackawanna Railroad, about 3 miles northeast of
Johnsonsburg, Warren County.
PENNSYLVANIA.
(Map 5.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account