116 



were no fossils in the drift south of Lake Champlain and Ports- 

 mouth. Since then they had been obtained at Nantucket and at 

 Brooklyn. 



Prof. Rogers replied that he considered these remains evidence 

 of the former existence of an extensive strait, which cut off 

 New England from the main continent. He would ask Mr. Fos- 

 ter, if any bones had been found in Ohio except at such localities 

 as Big Bone Lick. 



Mr. Foster replied, that in sinking wells in different parts of 

 the State, the same layers of clay had been found. Bones had 

 also been obtained at a distance from Big Bone Lick, in the blue 

 clay. 



Dr. Pickering said he wished to recall the attention of the 

 Society to the original subject, the mastodon. It was well known, 

 he said, that the remains of this animal and kindred species had 

 been found in high northern latitudes, entirely unsuited now by 

 their climate and vegetable products, to their structure and habits. 

 An opinion had been advanced, that since the epoch of these 

 species the earth's equator had shifted. 



It would aid us in considering the subject of the distribution of 

 these animals, if we were to suppose, as some had done, that 

 since the epoch of their existence the earth's equator had shifted. 

 On referring to a globe it might be seen that, if the zenith were 

 made to pass through London or Paris, the equator would just cut 

 off the extremity of South America, so that nearly all the land 

 would be in one hemisphere, and the water in the other. In this 

 view the land would have more the appearance of one continuous 

 territory, allowing a free migration from one part to another, 

 than it has in the common way of regarding it. 



Prof. Rogers, in reply to Mr. Desor's deduction from the bar- 

 renness of Tuckanuck shoal, said that he thought the examina- 

 tion had not been thorough enough to furnish an argument for 

 the condition of a wide continent. The Tellina groenlandica 

 had been found by Mr. Lyell at Montreal, it was true, at an ele- 

 vation of five hundred and forty feet, but at Augusta marine 

 shells had been found at a height of seventy feet, near Quebec at 

 eighty or ninety feet, and on Lake Champlain at a different level 

 still. These facts indicated a want of that parallelism of level which 



