64 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



A REVIEW OF THE MAMMALIAN REMAINS FROM THE 



SUPERFICIAL DEPOSITS IN THE VICINITY OF 



ONONDAGA LAKE, NEW YORK 



BY BURNETT SMITH 



Onondaga lake presents along its margins and in its low-lying tribu- 

 tary valleys, a series of clay, marl and peat deposits which are clearly 

 of later date than the latest glaciation of the region. It can not be 

 stated, at present, whether they were laid down in connection with a 

 once larger and higher lake or in and about separate but more or less 

 contemporaneous water bodies which were left behind in the shrink- 

 ing of such a lake. The highest altitude at which materials of this 

 series have been observed is slightly over 400 feet, that is, approxi- 

 mately 35 or 40 feet above Onondaga lake. They therefore lie below 

 the youngest glacial water level and though their oldest portions may 

 go back to the time immediately following the abandonment of the 

 Mohawk glacial drainage outlet at Rome^ (now about 460 feet in 

 altitude), their youngest layers fall within historic time and are even 

 accumulating in connection with Onondaga lake today. 



On account of the almost complete absence of natural exposures 

 one is obliged to depend upon excavations for a knowledge of the 

 structure and stratigraphy. From the same cause the few mam- 

 malian fossils from this series have been obtained at irregular inter- 

 vals and from scattered localities. The specimens which are avail- 

 able for study have been deposited at Syracuse University by differ- 

 ent collectors through a period of about thirty years and comprise 

 the remains of black bear, Virginia deer, American bison and an ele- 

 phant referable to the northern mammoth. 



In the cases of some of the specimens a few measurements have 

 been published but little attention has been paid to their geological 

 environment. In any attempt at correlation ordinary stratigraphic 

 methods can not, it is true, be employed ; but for that very reason all 

 obtainable information concerning exact locality and horizon be- 

 comes of greater value. Also on account of the fact that some of the 

 specimens are liable to the vicissitudes of privately owned material, 

 it is believed that photographic reproductions of the more important 

 finds should be published. 



1 H. L. Fairchild. Glacial Waters in Central New York. N. Y. State Mus. 

 Bui. 127, p. 55, 59. 



The present divide is below 440 feet (see U. S. G. S. topographic sheets 

 of the Oriskany and Chittenango quadrangles). 



