12 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1914. 



of about 750 feet. This plain was formed only on the softer Paleozoic 

 rocks, and, because of its prominence near Harrisburg, Pa., is known 

 as the Harrisburg peneplain. Conococheague Creek traverses the 

 Harrisburg peneplain in Maryland, and has dissected it considerably, 

 but the even sky line of the ancient plain is still clearly evident. 



Other factors in the geologic history of Maryland are recorded 

 in the well-defined gravel terraces along the major streams of the 

 area and in great alluvial fans of large and small bowlders, spread- 

 ing out at the foot of the larger mountains and sometimes reaching a 

 depth of 150 feet. 



PLEISTOCENE CAVE DEPOSIT IN MARYLAND. 



As the results of a further examination of the Pleistocene cave de- 

 posit near Cumberland, Md., by Mr. J. W. Gidley, of the National 

 Museum, many new forms were added to the collection, and much 

 better material obtained of several species represented only by frag- 

 ments of jaws in the first collection. The series now includes more 

 than 300 specimens, representing at least 40 distinct species of mam- 

 mals, many of which are extinct. Among the better preserved speci- 

 mens are several nearly complete skulls and lower jaws. The more 

 important animals represented are two species of bears, two species 

 of a large extinct peccary, a wolverine, a badger, a martin, two porcu- 

 pines, a woodchuck, and the American elandlike antelope. 



Other species represented by more fragmentary material include 

 the mastodon, tapir, horse, and beaver, besides several species of the 

 smaller rodents, shrews, bats, and others. 



This strange assemblage of fossil remains occurs hopelessly inter- 

 mingled and comparatively thickly scattered through a more or less 

 unevenly hardened mass of cave clays and breccias, which completely 

 filled one or more small chambers of a limestone cave, the material, 

 together with the bones, evidently having come to their final resting 

 l^lace through an ancient opening at the surface a hundred feet or 

 more above their present location. The deposit is exposed at the 

 bottom of a deep railroad cut which first brought to light this ancient 

 bone deposit and incidentally made access to the fossils comparatively 

 easy. 



GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF PANAMA. 



A statement was made in my report for last year that an allot- 

 ment had been made from the Institution's funds toward the ex- 

 penses of an investigation of the geology of Panama. This work is in 

 progress under the joint auspices of the Isthmian Canal Commis- 

 sion, the United States Geological Survey, and the Smithsonian 

 Institution. The general plan includes a systematic study of the 

 physiography, stratigraphy and structural geology, geologic history, 

 geologic correlation, mineral resources (including coal, oil, and other 



