31 E LJ A 1. N y X . 7 



both f.laviclps ; tlu' j-loiioid iuticiihitioii ol" the ridit scii|iula ; the left ImiiU'iiis: tlie 

 articular extremities of the right ubia, and those of both radii ; five carpal bones ; 

 four metacarpals ; eleven phalanges of the fore feet ; fragments of sever.al ribs ; one 

 sternal bone ; both tbigli bones broken ; both patellae ; both tibijB ; seven tarsal bones; 

 five metatarsals ; and five phalanges of the hind feet. 



The bones are ochreous yellow in color, brittle, and fissured, but otherwise well- 

 preserved. In relation to the locality from which they were obtained, I insert the 

 following letter received from my friend Dr. D. D. Owen, with the date : — 



New Harmony, Indiana, Sepiemher, 18, 1854. 



Dear Sir: During my geological siu'vey made this summer in Kentucky, I visited and c.xaniincil 

 the locality of the matri.x of the bones of the Mcgalonyx, which form the collection I forwarded to you 

 for description iu the memoir you are engaged in preparing for publication, on the Fossil Edentata of 

 tiio United States. 



As my geological report on that part of Kentucky will not appear before the issue of your work, I 

 proceed to furnish you with a short description of the geological position and locality of these inter- 

 esting organic relics. 



Travellers on the Ohio river will, doubtless, have noticed a remarkable rising ground, from Dve to six 

 miles below Henderson, on the Kentucky shore, elevated considerably above the adjacent bottom land ; 

 and forming the site of a beautiful country residence, belonging to Mr. Walter Alves. It is to that 

 gentleman I am indebted for the above valuable collection of bones sent to me in the summer of 1850. 



To the east, above Mr. Alves's house. Canoe creek empties into the Ohio. Below the eminence on 

 which the house stands, there is evidence of an ancient channel of a stream, probably that of the former 

 extension of Canoe creek, which then swept round in a bend to the southwest, discharging its waters 

 into Pond creek. The Ohio river gradually scooping away the Kentucky shore, encroached on the 

 narrow neck of land intervening, and finally uniting, caused Canoe creek, as at present, to empty 

 independently into the Ohio river. 



In the bank of the Ohio river, a few paces below the above-mentioned mound-like elevation, the bones 

 in question were found, seventy feet below the ancient channel of Canoe creek, and eighty-five feet 

 below the site of Mr. Alves's house on the above elevated point of land around which Canoe creek 

 meandered. The bone-bed is only some five or six feet above the ordinary low stage of water, lying 

 intermixed and partially imbedded in a ferruginous sand charged with Paludina ponderosa, Say, Melania 

 canaliculata, Cyclas rividaris, Cyclostoma, Pkysa, Lymnea, Planorbis tricarinata, Say, P. lens, and 

 fragments of unios, with stems and limbs of trees. 



Just beneath this ferruginous sand and shell bed, is a blue or rather a dark ash-colored clay. This 

 clay has been most remarkably hollowed out into large cavities (" pot holes"). Into these cavities the 

 ferruginous sand has been swept apparently by eddying currents of the Ohio river. 



This ferruginous sand is very irregular as to thickness, forming rather isolated deposits than one con- 

 nected, continuous bed. At a higher level (forty to fifty feet above the ordinary low water), the fine 

 siliceous earths and marls are found, which are so universally distributed over the lower grounds in the 

 vicinity of the Ohio, Mississippi, and Wabash rivers, even up to the height of one hundred feet and 

 more, and which are locally characterized by several species of Helix, Pupa armigera, Siicchiea, 

 Cyclostoma, &c. 



Near the junction of the ferruginous sand and "blue" clay, many trunks of oak and other trees are 

 seen projecting ; often converted into a blackish-brown impressible charcoal or brown coal. 



We were not able to discover an instance where the bones were fairly imbedded in the " blue" clay. 

 They appear to originate in the ferruginous sand, and to be incrusted with the same material. 



Though the ferruginous sand and " blue" clay lie at a lower level than the fine siliceous marly earths, 

 I am not quite certain whether the former may not have been deposited subsequently, unconformably on 

 the slope of the latter. If not unconformable, then the bone bed is older than the siliceons marly 

 earths. This I hope to be able to determine this fall. 



One thing, however, is very certain, both from the )i(isilion of thc.^e liones and those found, under 



