474 FAMILY PHOCID^. 



3. ''Phoca modesta^\ This species, described by Leidy in 

 18G9,* is based on a small tooth from the Ashley Eiver deposits 

 of South Carolina, and, says this author, "is referred to a Seal, 

 though it is not improbable it may belong to a Squalodont" ; as, 

 in fact, I have little doubt is the case. 



IIT. Remains referred to Existing Species. In 1856 Professor 

 Leidy described and figured t some fossil remains of Seals found 

 in the "township of Gloucester, county of Carleton, Canada 

 West, about nine miles east of the city of Ottawa ", in a bed of 

 blue clay containing boulders and marine shells and fishes. The 

 shells found embrace, according to Mr. E. Billings, Tellina groen- 

 landica, Mytilus edulis, Saxicava rugosa, and a small species allied 

 to Leda; while the fishes are Mallotus villosus and Cycloptenis 

 lumjms, and the clays containing them are regarded as of Post- 

 pliocene age. "The bones," says Dr. Leidy, "proved on exam- 

 ination to be those of the greater portion of the hinder extremities 

 of a young Seal, but whether of a species distinct from those 

 now found in the neighboring seas, is only to be determined by 

 careful comparison with the corresponding parts of the recent 

 animals. The soft distal extremities of the tibia and fibula are 

 crushed together. The bones of the ankle and foot are well 

 preserved, but the epiphyses of the latter are separated and 

 only partially developed. The matrix in the vicinity of the 

 bones is marked by the impression of the hairs and skin which 

 enveloped them." 



Dr. Leidy has since} referred these remains provisionally to 

 Phoca groenlandica. 



Dr. Leidy's account of these remains was also published in the 

 " Canadian Naturalist and Geologist " (i, 1857, pp. 238, 239, pi. 

 iii). Twenty years later some further notice of fossil Seal re- 

 mains from the same locality was given by Dr. Dawson, in 

 which, referring to the former account, he says : "A good figure 

 and description were published in the first volume of the 

 Naturalist in 1856. No further information bearing directly on 

 this fossil was secured until the present year, when the bone 

 now exhibited [before the Natural History Society of Montreal, 

 October 29, 1877], was obtained by Dr. Grant, fr-om a boy who had 

 collected it at the same place and in the same bed in which the 

 first-mentioned specimen was found. It is the left ramus of the 



*Ext. Mam. N. Amer., 1869, p. 415, pi. xxviii, fig. 14. 

 tProc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Pbila., 1856, pp. 90, 91, pi. iii. 

 tExt. Mam. N. Amer., 1869, p. 415. 

 $ Canad. Nat., 2 ser., vol. viii, 1877, pp. 340, 341. 



