110 TWENTY-FIRST RErORT. 



softening of the bones and teeth. The* parts fonnd in this case include a full 

 set of molars, one tusk so softened that only about two feet of the tip of the 

 tusk remains unbroken, the atlas, several ribs and vertebrae, a number of toe 

 bones and some pieces of bones. What is of considerable interest in this find 

 is the finding of a number of seed cones of the common black Spruce, Picea 

 mariana, and a portion of a horn of the elk or Wapiti. The native habitat of 

 the black Spruce at the present time is well known. It seems that this spe- 

 cimen must have lived much later in time than the one mentioned before. 



The third specimen to be found within the area was uncovered in 1909, 

 on the farm of Mr. Albert Smith, six miles southeast of Alma, on the southwest 

 quarter of the northeast quarter of Section 17, Township 11 north. Range 2 

 west. This specimen was found in an inlet from the old beach described above. 

 The bones were lying on a gravelly bed, and were covered over by marl, which 

 was in turn covered by about two feet of vegetable deposits, now largely turned 

 to muck. The bones were scattered about and some of them show some signs 

 of wear from the action of water. The skull was unintentionally broken open 

 by the workmen who found it. In this condition it shows well the relatively 

 small brain cavity and the remarkable alveolar structure of the walls of the 

 cranium. No teeth nor tusks were discovered, but a fragment of the root of a 

 molar was still imbedded in the maxillary, and served to identify the specimen 

 without any question. A number of vertebi-ae, several ribs, with some frag- 

 ments of ribs, the head of a femur, a hip bone, one scapula and a number of 

 pieces of bones were found. The parts are all in a fair state of preservation 

 and show some mineralization. The presence of the marl served to protect 

 the bones from the disintegrating action which might otherwise have been 

 caused by the overlying vegetable decay. 



The relation of the remains of the specimen to the fossil beach is signifi- 

 cant, and serves to give it a place both chronologically and geographically. 



Hay ' advances good reasons for thinking that Mastodon lived possibly 

 from the pleiocene to the end of the pleistocene. The last of specimens de- 

 scribed above most probably lived during the Algonquin-Iroquois stage; the 

 one just previous to the Champlain substage, in which as yet no Mastodon 

 remains have been found. The second specimen may have lived at a later date. 

 In fact, it might possibly have been in the Champlain substage. so far as 

 might be judged from the conditions. At any rate, it is reasonable to suppose 

 that the last two specimens represented in the collection are among the last 

 representatives of "a mighty race" which, according to Hay, "had weathered 

 the vicissitudes of four or five glacial periods." 



^Hay. O. P. On Some rroboscklians of the state of New York. Science N. S. Vol. 

 XLIX, pp. 377-379. 



Alma College, Alma, Michigan 



