30 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 5 1 



ELEPHAS COLUMBI Falconer 



Elephas columbi Falconer, H., 1857, Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc. of London, 

 xir, p. 319. 



The only reported occurrence of E. columbi is given by Dall, 1 who 

 mentions that tusks, teeth, and bones of E. primigenins and E. co- 

 lumbi were collected by Wossnessenski near Topanika Creek, Norton 

 Sound. We quite agree with Maddren 2 that "the identification needs 

 verification before it is assigned to Alaska." 



MAMMUT AMERICANUM (Kerr) 

 The American Mastodon 

 Ekphas americanum, Kerr, R., 1792 Anim. Kingdom, p. 116. 



Description. — It may be readily distinguished from Elephas 

 primigenius by the character of the teeth, which bear simple tent- 

 like ridges (see plate vin). By its low massive build and shape of 

 the skull and the tooth characters just reviewed, it may be told apart 

 from the mammoth by the most casual observer. 



Remarks. — This animal also has a wide distribution. Its re- 

 mains have been found from New York to Florida and west to 

 Texas and Washington. It extended north into Canada, and re- 

 cently two teeth have been found in the Klondike region near Daw- 

 son. The writer refers here to a Mastodon molar secured by Dr. 

 T. W. Tyrrell on Gold Run Creek in 1902, and through him pre- 

 sented to Mr. W. H. Osgood, 3 of the U. S. Biological Survey, and 

 now in the vertebrate paleontological collection of the U. S. National 

 Museum (see pi. vni. fig. 1). A second occurrence of this species 

 in this region was noted by the writer in the summer of 1907 — a 

 tooth collected during the spring of 1906 on Sulphur Creek, near 

 Dawson (see map, plate ix), and now in the possession of Mr. 

 Joseph Nichlas, of that city. This specimen is reproduced here from 

 a photograph (pi. vni, fig. 2). It is of interest to note the occur- 

 rence of the mastodon in this region and in both places associated 

 with remains of the mammoth. 



In 1904 Mr. M. T. Obalski 4 mentions the occurrence of the mas- 



1 Dall, W. IT. : Seventeenth Annual Report U. S. Geological Survey, 1896, 

 p. 856. 



"Maddren. A. G. : Smith. Misc. Coll., vol. xi.ix, No. 1584, 1905, p. 7. 



3 Osgood, W. H. : Proc. Biol. Soc. of Washington, November, 190 



XVIII. 



4 Obalski, M. T. : Les grandes Fossiles dans le Yukon et 1' Alaska. Bull d< 

 la Musee d'Hist. Nat., Pari?. 1904, No. 5, pp. 214-217. 



