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
9. _Gardiner, Kennebec County._—In 1845 Charles Lyell visited (“Second
Visit to the United States,” vol. I, p. 44) Gardiner, Maine, and
examined a collection of fossil shells and crustacea which had been made
by Mrs. Frederic Allen from the glacial deposits of that vicinity. He
recognized the tooth of a walrus, which he stated was similar to the one
procured by him on Martha’s Vineyard. This tooth is said by Packard
(Mem. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. I, 1867, p. 246) to have been a tusk;
and he was informed that it had been taken by Lyell to London and had
been identified by Professor Richard Owen. Inasmuch as Owen regarded the
specimen found on Martha’s Vineyard as a species distinct from the one
now living on the Atlantic coast, it is to be supposed that the Gardiner
specimen also was thought to be different from the latter. Packard, in
another communication (Amer. Naturalist, vol. I, 1868, p. 268), states
that the tooth of the walrus and some teeth of a supposed bison were
discovered in the clay-beds at Gardiner by Lyell, or at least during his
visit, but it is evident that they had been collected before his
arrival.
In his discussion of the supposed bison teeth found in clay at Gardiner,
Dr. J. A. Allen (The American Bisons, 1876, pp. 89, 91) gives us some
information about the fate of Mrs. Frederic Allen’s collection. At her
death it passed into the possession of her daughter, by whom the greater
part of it was presented to Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine. Professor
Manton Copeland, of this college, informs the writer that the walrus
tusk is in their collection and bears the number FM20. It is badly
shattered. The length is about 75 mm.
The important matter concerning the remains of the walrus found at
Gardiner is to determine when the animal lived there. It is to be
assumed that the tusk had been buried in the Pleistocene clay at that
locality. This appears to belong to the closing period of the Wisconsin
stage, but there has been some dispute about its age.
Packard (Mem. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. I, pp. 245–246) gives a list
of the species which had been found in the clay at Gardiner. These are
nearly all invertebrates and indicate a climate somewhat colder than
that now existing there. Whether the time when the walrus lived at
Gardiner was before or after the culmination of the Wisconsin ice
period, it was so long ago that those deposits of clay, made in
sea-water of considerable depth, have since been lifted above sea-level
to a height of perhaps 200 feet.
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.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account