PRELIMINARY REPORT ON A RECENTLY DISCOVERED 

 PLEISTOCENE CAVE DEPOSIT NEAR CUMBERLAND, 

 MARYLAND. 



Bt James Williams Gidlet, 



Assistant Curator of Fossil Mammals, United States Natiomil Museum. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The recent fortunate discovery of Pleistocene mammal remains in 

 cave deposits near Cumberland, Maryland, adds one more to the 

 rather limited number of such occurrences and promises to be of 

 great importance in working out the comparatively little known 

 Pleistocene mammahan life of the eastern United States. It may 

 also aid in the proper correlation of these and similar deposits of 

 the East with the better known Pleistocene beds of other parts of the 

 country. 



The preliminary investigation of the Cumberland Cave deposit 

 made last October produced most encouraging results. Over 100 

 specimens were secured, consisting principally of jaws and jaw frag- 

 ments, which represent 22 recognizable genera, including one genus 

 now exclusively African, and at least 29 species, most of which are 

 apparently extinct, or are now living in remote localities. The work of 

 exploration again taken up by the writer in May of the present year 

 has already added several other forms to the list, and is yielding 

 better material of many of the forms represented in the collection 

 of last autumn. This material will be pubHshed with the final results 

 and conclusions at a later date when the exploration is completed. 



The location of this important find is at the bottom of a deep cut 

 of the Western Maryland Railway where it passes through the north 

 end of a spur or ridge of hmestone near the little village of Corrigans- 

 ville, at the mouth of Cash Valley, about 4 miles northwest of Cum- 

 berland. The ledge is here upturned at an angle of about 90°, the 

 roadway cutting it nearly at right angles, and the excavation is 

 about 100 feet deep at the point where the fossil-bearing deposits 

 were exposed. When first observed the workmen naturally regarded 

 the bones as those of animals now living in the neighborhood, and 

 beyond exciting their curiosity at finding them buried in the rocks 

 and debris of a small cavern at so great a depth, no particular interest 



Proceedinqs U. S. National Museum, Vol. 46— No. 2014- 



