284 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1918. 



totally unrelated animals, most of which would not be found directly 

 associated in life. 



A critical study of these fossil bones, thus accidentally brought to- 

 gether and again accidentally discovered by man, unfolds a most 

 interesting story of the mammalian life as it existed in the environs 

 of western Maryland during some portion of the so-called "Glacial 

 Period," or " Ice Age." It can not be assumed, however, that these 

 45 or more species included in the Cumberland Cave collection rep- 

 resent by any means all the different kinds of animals that lived in 

 the locality at that particular period; for, it must be remembered, 

 accident, as just stated, was the chief factor in the accumulation of 

 this deposit, and doubtless many forms then inhabiting the region 

 entirely escaped this pitfall and therefore left no record. Never- 

 theless, could one, looking backward some 50,000 or 100,000 years to 

 that time, see only those forms represented in this collection as they 

 appeared in life, a remarkable assemblage of creatures would be 

 presented ; more remarkable, in fact, than a glance at the list enumer- 

 ated might at first indicate. One would at once recognize among 

 these animals of the Pleistocene times, as already intimated, certain 

 species very like some of those either living in the vicinity to-day or 

 which have lived there within the history of civilized man. Then 

 many others would be seen to resemble living forms now only in- 

 habiting very far-distant localities; while still others would appear 

 differing from any animal living anywhere in the world to-day. 



Among those resembling living or recently extinct species of the 

 neighborhood would be included two or three forms of bats, a small 

 shrew, a wood rat, two or three species of pocket mice, a woodchuck, 

 a "yellow" porcupine, a rabbit, possibly a wolf or two, a black bear, 

 and probably a deer of the Virginia or white-tail variety. Most 

 conspicuous and probably the most interesting feature of this 

 ancient fauna is the large number of species which resembled pres- 

 ent-day forms that are now known to inhabit only remote and, in 

 some instances, very far separated localities. Among these may be 

 especially noted the little coney rabbit, or picas, now confined in 

 North America to the highest peaks of the Rocky Mountains; the 

 Canadian porcupine, restricted in range to the western United States 

 and Canada; the wolverine, a strictly boreal or northern animal 

 abundant in the Arctic regions and not known to range farther south 

 than northern Massachusetts, New York, and Michigan; a bear of 

 the grizzly group, not known in recent times to have extended its 

 range east of the Great Plains States; a tapir, now confined to 

 tropical zones; a horse, its kind in nature now confined entirely 

 to the Old World; a certain species of bat now living in northern 

 Mexico; and two or three species of wolves now living in the west- 

 ern and northern regions of North America, and in Siberia. 



