MASTODONS, MAMMOTHS AND OTHER PLEISTOCENE MAMMALS II 



Various theories have been advanced to account for the presence 

 of the skeleton in the potholes. Hall not only provided a glacial 

 origin for the holes but for the mastodon itself which he believed 

 to have been entombed in the glacier, dismembered by action of the 

 ice and dropped, part in one pothole and part in another. 



Clarke 7 was of the opinion that the skeleton belonged to the period 

 of swamps which covered the area after the fall of the postglacial 

 waters. O. P. Hay 8 stated his opinion as follows : " We may fairly 

 assume that it [the mastodon] had only recently died and was lying 

 on the flood plain not far above the potholes. No disarticulated 

 bones could have been distributed as this skeleton was. The bones 

 must, perhaps without exception, have been held together by liga- 

 ments and probably much of the flesh remained. At this moment 

 the river rose and swept the flood plain carrying the cadaver over 

 the potholes." 



It is certain that the skeleton was deposited long after the pot- 

 holes had been drilled, for the majority of the bones rested on a 

 bed of clay and broken slate above a layer of water-worn pebbles 

 and gravel at least 10 feet thick. Above the bones the muck and 

 peat deposit was at least 50 feet thick. It would seem therefore 

 that the bones were deposited while in the flesh in potholes which 

 were abandoned except at periods of high water, and subsequently 

 covered by the accumulated debris of years. 



Allegany County 



3 1903. Belvidere. The only find of a mastodon in Allegany 

 county of which we have knowledge is the one mentioned as a news 

 item in the American Geologist (Jan. 1904: 33:60). "Remains of 

 a large mastodon were discovered recently in the village of Belvi- 

 dere, N. Y. They were unearthed by Dr James Johnson of Brad- 

 ford and Mr Alban Stewart of the Smithsonian Institution. The 

 remains consist of three ribs and four vertebrae, each of the latter 

 being 6 inches in width, indicating a very large individual." 



Bronx County 



4 1880. Morrisania. Mastodon or mammoth. Dr N. L. Brit- 

 ton 9 has given the following account of this find : "A mastodon's 

 tusk was recently found at Morrisania, N. Y., by Mr R. Stoker, in 



7 N. Y. State Mus. Bui. 69, 1903, p. 930. 

 8 Science 1919, 49 :379. 



8 School of Mines Quarterly, May 1880, p. 198-99. See also N. Y= Acad. 

 Sci., Trans. 1885, 5:15. 



