8 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



toroides and reindeer. The most complete record of mastodon 

 occurrences thus far printed is that by John M. Clarke (N. Y. State 

 Museum Bui. 69, 1903) in which there are about sixty distinct 

 entries with ten or more in later publications. Rock caves have 

 been a source of vertebrate remains, but exploration of New York 

 caves has not resulted in the finding of numerous species such as 

 have been discovered in Pennsylvania and elsewhere; from the 

 great abundance and variety of species discovered in these neighbor- 

 ing states it would be reasonable to suppose that New York sup- 

 ported a similar fauna. The discovery of open caves or crevices 

 and the accident of entombment and preservation must be depended 

 on for any great extension of the list of fossil species in New York. 



New York has proved to be particularly rich in remains of 

 Mastodon and Elephas and in here summarizing these discoveries, 

 they have been recorded chronologically by counties, numbered con- 

 secutively in the text and indicated on key maps, plates 2, 6, 13, 

 showing distribution. Of the several factors contributing to the 

 localization of mastodon remains in southeastern New York, where 

 over one-third of the recorded specimens have been found, the early 

 physical development of the country is doubtless the most impor- 

 tant. Here were thousands of acres of swampy upland, freed by 

 the recession of the great ice sheet and offering food to invading 

 animals from the south. The land to the northwest held fewer 

 inducements for there is nothing in the makeup of a mastodon to 

 fit it for mountain climbing. Eastward the ancient Hudson may 

 have acted as a partial barrier, for comparatively few remains of 

 these animals have been recorded from New England. The largest 

 of the existing swampy areas in Orange county, the so-called 

 " drowned lands," cover about 17,000 acres, but it is not here that 

 remains have been found, probably because the change from open 

 lake to swamp has been too recent. Peat bogs and marl ponds out- 

 side the area of the " drowned lands." and the beds of extinct ponds 

 now being used for agricultural purposes are the regions that have 

 contributed most largely of mastodon remains. 



Muck and marl deposits are natural traps in which the animals 

 mired ; and this is every year evidenced by the " bogging down " of 

 domestic cattle. If further proof were needed it is only necessary 

 to recall the many instances where remains have been found in posi- 

 tions which would admit no other explanation. In several cases 

 too, the stomach contents have been found between the ribs, further 

 evidence of sudden death. 



This record is believed to be reasonably correct and complete but 

 the writers would be grateful for additional data and for correc- 

 tions to errors existing in the list herewith presented. 



