o8 



THE FOSSIL SLOTH AT BIG BONE CAVE, TENN. [Jan. 15, 



found a bunch of moss, Hypnum ; ten twigs from three to eight inches 

 long, charred at the ends and evidently the remnants of torches, 

 used by Indians or white men, of the hazel, Corylus americana ; five 

 fragments, one of them charred and three inches long, of resinous 

 yellow pine, Finns mitis ; a fragment of charred cane stalk, Arun- 

 dinaria macrosperma^ and another twig about eight inches long, not 

 burned, of the cane, Ariindinaria tecta ; a gnawed pig nut, Hicoria 

 glabra, and a shellbark, Hicoria ovata ; a piece of hickory nut, 

 Hicoria minima ; a chokecherry stone, Priinus virginiana Linn.; a 

 piece of hazel nut, Cory/us americana ; a fragment of an acorn of the 

 pin oak, Quercus palustris, and three pieces of winged seeds of the 

 blue ash, Fraxinus quadrafigiilata, besides a piece of bark, prob- 

 ably hazel, and fragments of unidentified grass and bark. Besides 

 these botanical specimens kindly identified (with all others referred 

 to in this paper) by Mr. Stewardson Brown, of the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Mr, S. N. Rhoads, and Dr. Har- 

 rison Allen, of the Academy, have further settled the identity of 

 twenty quills of the porcupine, Erethizon dorsatus, with its numerous 



excrements, (See 

 Fig, i6) and a 

 piece of hair, 

 which had found 

 their way info 

 the holes, be- 

 sides the upper 

 jaw with por- 

 tions of the skull 

 of a bat, Vesperti- 

 lio gryphus ; and 

 a lower and up- 

 per jaw, with 

 teeth and cartil- 

 age attached, of 



a larger bat, Adelonycteris fusca. More excrements of porcupine 

 seemed to have worked into the choked -up holes than were observed 

 in the undisturbed portion of the layer, while with them was found 

 a fragment of the brain case of a large mammal, smaller, according 

 to Mr. Rhoads, than an adult bear. If this small specimen, 

 not an inch in length, cannot be regarded as a portion of the 

 remains of the Megalonyx, it represents the only trace of any 



Fig. i6 (actual size). — Quills of the porcupine, Erethizo7i 

 dorsatus, found with other intruded rubbish at various depths 

 in the rat holes. No signs of the porcupine were found in 

 the lower part of the manure (called Layer 3). Coprolites 

 of cave rats and pieces of clay form the background. 



