14 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



creek empties into the Allegany river less than a mile from Kill 

 Buck, which is nearly 3 miles east from the great northern bend of 

 the Allegany. The locality is nearly midway between Hinsdale and 

 Conewango, the other two localities where fossil bones have been 

 found in the county. 



Chautauqua County 



11 1843? Jamestown. In 1843 Hall reported that a tooth of a 

 mastodon had been found at Jamestown, several feet below the 

 surface, in gravel. 



Fossil teeth from the same neighborhood, at first thought to be- 

 long to the mastodon, were described as early as 1835, but these 

 have proved to be teeth of the buffalo. Jamestown is located near 

 the outlet of Chautauqua lake at an elevation of 1300 feet and is 

 24 miles distant from Lake Erie. (See Amer. Jour. Sci., i835, 

 27:166. 



12 1 87 1. Jamestown. Large mastodon. Two skeletons were 

 found in this year at the same locality. The larger one 14 has been 

 rather fully described by the late Hon. Obed Edson in his " History 

 of Chautauqua County" (1894, p. 34-36). Llis account follows: 



" In August 1871, portions of a gigantic mastodon were found 1 

 mile north of Jamestown near the summit of the low hills dividing 

 the valley of Chautauqua lake from that of the Cassadaga. This 

 important discovery within our county, of relics of life in the Cham- 

 plain period (perhaps of the Recent period), demands a full descrip- 

 tion. The exhumation and preservation of the bones were fortu- 

 nately intrusted to the late Prof. Samuel G. Love, assisted by Pro- 

 fessors Burns and Albro, and are now in the museum of the James- 

 town High School. The following is from an article written by 

 Prof. S. G. Love, published in the Jamestown Journal: 



On the east side of the Fredonia road, about 1 mile north of James- 

 town, is the farm of Joel I. Hoyt. About 500 yards from the road is a 

 sink or slough covering about an acre, possibly more in extent, and vary- 

 ing from 2 to 8 feet in depth, and fed by several living springs. Cattle 

 have been mired and lost there since the farm was first occupied. Mr 

 Hoyt drained the sink and left the muck to dry, and later commenced an 

 excavation there. The work of excavating had continued a little more 

 than a week, when the workmen began to find (as they supposed) a 

 peculiar kind of wood and roots, imbedded some 6 feet beneath the sur- 

 face. For several days they continued to carry the small pieces into an 

 adjoining field with the muck, and to pile the larger ones with pine roots 

 and stumps to be burned. But Mr Hoyt discovered unmistakable evi- 

 dences of the remains of some huge animal. At once there was a change 



"Another description of this skeleton and that of a smaller one found 

 nearby is given by T. A. Cheney under date of November 13, 1871, in the 

 American Naturalist 1872, 6:178-79. See description, p. 16. 



