1897.] 



THE FOSSIL SLOTH AT BIG ]iOXE CAVE. TEXN 



HI 



Fig. i8 (actual size). — Speci- 

 men of Layer 2. An acorn cup 

 of the pin oak, Quercus palus- 

 tris, and a gnawed mocker nut, 

 Hicoria alba, rest upon frag- 

 ments of cave clay and a mass 

 of drv rat manure. 



butter nut. 



had fluttered througli the congenial blackness of the gallery in 

 geologically recent times, though we ad- 

 mit that the species referred to are an- 

 cient and probably existed at the epoch 

 called post-glacial. 



In the very close neighborhood of the 

 bones, as further identified by Mr. Stew- 

 ardson Brown, we found fragments of 

 the acorns of the red oak, Quercus rubra 

 Linn. (Fig. 17 object 5), and of the 

 white oak, Quercus alba Linn.: an 

 acorn cup of the pin oak, Quercus 

 palusiris Duke (see Fig. 18); half 

 of a nut gnawed by rodents of the 

 thick-shelled, small-kerneled mocker 

 nut, Hicoria alba Linn., Br., (see Fig. 

 18) several gnawed nuts of shellbark, 

 Hicoria ovata Mill, Br., and the gnawed nut of the 

 Juglans cinerea Linn. With these lay 

 several fragments of winged seeds of 

 blue ash, Fraxiuus quadrangulata Mich, 

 (see Fig. 19 and Fig. 17 object 4) ; two 

 seeds of the horn beam, Fraxiuus caro- 

 liniana Walt.; a piece of bark of the 

 chokecherry ; a seed of the gum Nyssa 

 sylvatica ; two small twigs of dogwood, 

 Cor mis aliernifolia Linn.; fourteen lit- 

 tle fragments of sticks and leaves and 

 several pieces of bark undetermined, 

 together with two wild cherry stones, 

 Prunus pennsylvanica Linn. ; while re- 

 corded as exactly under one of the sloth ^^"g^^ ^^^^" °^ ^^^ ^'"^ '^'^^' 



, ,,1 1 ,- 1 , 1 Fraxinus quadrangulata, and in- 



bones we pulled out a seed of the alder, ^j^^ ^^ ^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ 



AhlUS incana Linn, (see Fig. 20), and red oak. Quercus rubra, rests a 



another of the horn beam, Ca7-pinus \i&^c\in\x'i,Fagusamericana.l\\&%& 



caroliniana Walt., with a nut of the ^^"^^ ''^'^ unearthed near the 

 , , . large bones and had probably 



beech, ragus a?nericaua bweet (riff, k r, 1.-^ M,f \^*r. ti.^ oo„o f^V 



' o V o been brought mto the cave lor 



19 '• food or nest building by the cave 



There was no reason for doubting rat, Neotoma viaglster. 

 that these objects had reached their position at or about the time of 



Fig. 19 (actual size).— Rat ex- 

 crement, clay and vegetable rub- 

 bish characteristic of Layer 2. 

 Against two fragments of the 



