708 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 409. 



" The Glacial terrace in the vicinity of 

 Steubenville, Ohio, consists of gravel and sand 

 in varying proportions from fine sand up to 

 small boulders of about six inches in diam- 

 eter, the large proportion of the material, 

 however, is from the size of wheat grains down. 

 The material is partly derived from local 

 rocks, but a large percentage, varying in dif- 

 ferent localities, is from the granitic and re- 

 lated material transported from the north of 

 the lakes, the character of the latter being so 

 distinctive as to convince geologists of its der- 

 ivation as indicated above, and that it came 

 from the grist of the glacier once covering the 

 northern part of the continent. The material 

 has been transported by water action from the 

 farthest limit southward of the glacier, whose 

 nearest approach to the locality under con- 

 sideration was at Lisbon in Columbiana Coun- 

 ty, twenty-five miles northward. 



" The terrace material is supposed to reach 

 in places over one hundred feet in depth below 

 high water of the Ohio River, and rises 

 in the vicinity in places over seventy feet above 

 low-water mark, or about thirty-five or forty 

 feet above high water. 



" The skull of the musk ox exhibited at the 

 Pittsburgh meeting of the American Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science was 

 found in the glacial terrace above described, 

 the locality being on the West Virginia side of 

 the Ohio, opposite and over one mile below 

 Steubenville, Ohio, in the sand pit of the Steu- 

 benville Sand Co. on the Thomas Mahan farm. 

 Brook Co., West Va., and at the east side of 

 the Wheeling Branch of the P. C. C. and St. 

 L. E. R. (Panhandle). 



" The find consists of the major part of the 

 skull, with brain cavity and portions of horn 

 cores, and appears to be that of a musk ox. 

 The skull was found by a laborer in the pit 

 on the face of the talus slope, and therefore 

 out of its original position. The contents of 

 the brain and other cavities were the same as 

 the terrace in general. The skull was first 

 seen in the face of the slope of the pit above 

 the level of the railroad, which is several feet 

 aKove the highest level the river has ever 



reached since the vicinity has been inhabited 

 by the whites. As any movement of the skull 

 must necessarily have been downward, its orig- 

 inal position before the sand was disturbed 

 must have been well above high water, al- 

 though the preservation of the skull must be 

 held to indicate considerable covering, as it has 

 lain for thousands of years in the terrace. 

 The surface of the terrace is covered with a 

 layer of clayey material that would be quite 

 an element in the preservation of the skull. 

 Near the position of the skull and under sim- 

 ilar circumstances has since been found the 

 nearly complete shoulder blade of a mammoth, 

 which is now in my possession. The original 

 position of the skull and shoulder blade as to 

 geological horizon, was probably somewhat 

 lower than that of the knife presented at the 

 Springfield meeting of the American Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science, and 

 found five miles below and on the opposite side 

 of the Ohio River, but in the same glacial 

 deposit. The accompanying sketch indicates 

 the approximate cross-section of the Ohio 

 River valley at the point under consideration." 



I have examined with some care this skull, 

 which, through the kindness of Mr. Huston, 

 is now in the loan collection of this Museum. 

 Only the posterior portion of it is preserved, 

 and this appears to have pertained to a not very 

 old though fully adult individual, as is evi- 

 denced by the nature of the sutures of the 

 inferior region of the cranium. All that re- 

 gion anterior to the orbits is wanting. The 

 zygomata and inferior processes (pterygoids, 

 postglenoids, paroecipitals) are likewise broken 

 away. The rounded and polished nature of 

 many of the surfaces indicates that it was 

 transported for some distance before- becoming 



