72 NEW YORK STATE MUSEU.M 



a once greater postglacial lake. If the deposits under considera- 

 tion were laid down in connection with one uniformly shrinking and 

 lowering water body, it is reasonable to assume that (depth below 

 the present land surface being constant) those remains which are 

 found far from existing lakes are older than the remains occurring 

 in close proximity to the present lakes. On the other hand if the 

 deposits represent those of separate and more or less contemporary 

 ponds, no statement can be made except that they are all postglacial 

 in age. 



Though a final conclusion upon this particular phase of the prob- 

 lem must await future investigation, the writer feels at liberty to 

 express the opinion that all the remains here considered are those 

 of animals which lived at a time or at different times approaching 

 the present much more closely than the date of the last glacial 

 water level. The strongest evidence in support of this view is the 

 superficial position of all the specimens. 



A careful survey of the associated molluscan and plant life has 

 not yet been made, but no facts have so far appeared to warrant the 

 belief that the series of deposits under discussion contain more 

 than one biological association. If we accept the classification of 

 Osborn^ we are apparently dealing with his Fourth Quaternary, 

 Cermts, or Holocene fauna. With the exception of Elephas, all the 

 forms here considered are those of which we have historic records 

 for America. In the individual case of the Manlius Station (or 

 Minoa) elephant it might be stated that the author has, so far, 

 failed to obtain the slightest evidence which might justify its refer- 

 ence to any system of deposits materially older than those which 

 furnished the bear, deer and bison remains described in this paper. 



Acknowledgments. In the preparation of these notes compari- 

 sons were made with material belonging to the United States Bio- 

 logical Survey, the United States National Museum, the American 

 Museum of Natural History, and the Academy of Natural Sciences 

 of Philadelphia. To the officers of these institutions, to Dr O. P. 

 Hay of the Carnegie Institution, to Prof. Amos P. Brown of the 

 University of Pennsylvania, to Professors W. M. Smallwood and 

 T. C. Hopkins of Syracuse University, to Messrs John Cunningham, 

 Philip F. Schneider and Edward Baumer of Syracuse, to Mr DeCost 

 Smith of New York City, and to Mrs Ethel Ostrander Smith, 

 the author wishes to express his thanks. 



1 H. F. Osborn. The Age of Mammals, p. 372, 440. 



