NO. 30 



SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, [QI2 



49 



A NEWLY-DISCOVERED CAVE DEPOSIT NEAR CUMBERLAND, 



MARYLAND 



In October, 1912, Mr. J. W. Gidley, assistant curator of fossil 

 mammals, in the National Museum, made a preliminary examination 

 of sonic cave deposits containing bones of Pleistocene age near 

 Cumberland, Maryland, which had previously been discovered and 

 reported by Mr. Raymond Armbruster, a citizen of Cumberland. 



p if 



Fig. 54. — South side of railroad cut, near Cumberland, Maryland, showing 

 upturned ledge of Heldebergian (Devonian) limestone, partly covered with 

 stalactitic material ; bone-bearing deposits seen at base. Photograph by Gidley. 



The results were very satisfactory considering the limited time avail- 

 able, upwards of a hundred specimens being secured representing 

 about 24 species of mammals, most of them cither extinct or now 

 living only in localities very remote from the mountains of Western 

 Maryland. 



The fauna proves very interesting, and the "find" promises 

 to be most important in that it will throw much additional light 

 on our knowledge of the Pleistocene mammals of the eastern United 

 States, or, in other words, those immediately preceding the existing 



