MASTODONS, MAMMOTHS AND OTHER PLEISTOCENE MAMMALS I J 



Sheridan, one-half mile west of the Hanover town line, and 2^ 

 miles from Lake Erie. The farm is along the main highway, run- 

 ning from Buffalo to Erie, Pa., and here follows the beach of glacial 

 Lake Warren for several miles. The beach is at an elevation of 

 755 feet, or 183 above the level of Lake Erie. A second or higher 

 beach of Lake Warren is here well developed, lying parallel to it 

 one-half of a mile to the southeast and 30 feet higher. At the south, 

 beyond this higher Warren lake beach at a little more than a mile 

 distant is the still older beach of glacial Lake Whittlesey, 40 feet 

 above the highest Warren beach. At the place where the bones 

 were found, the lower Warren beach is not over 300 feet wide with 

 a narrow strip of muck land on both sides, and it was in this muck 

 150 feet south of the highway (landward side of the beach) that 

 the bones were found. The muck at the locality is about 2 feet 

 thick, and below that 3 feet of quicksand, underneath which is a 

 hard bed of sand on which all the bones were found, except the 

 skull. The tusks were driven into the sand a couple of feet. From 

 the position in which the bones lay, it would seem as if the mastodon 

 had come up over the old lake beach and plunged headfirst into the 

 quicksand. 



The remains found consisted of the skull fairly well preserved, 

 one tusk with the tip broken off measuring J~y 2 feet long and 7 

 inches in diameter. The other tusk had the tip preserved, but the 

 base was broken off and measured about 4 feet in length. Other 

 bones found were a number of vertebrae, part of the leg and 

 shoulder bones. Twelve teeth were found, some of which were 4 

 inches across and weighed 4 pounds each. 



16 1902. West field. Mastodon or mammoth. We are indebted 

 to Doctor Clarke, who visited this locality, for the details of this 

 find. He states 15 that the bones were found " on property of Mrs 

 Alice Peacock, alongside the Nickel Plate Railroad. The bones lay 

 on pavement of heavy boulders and under several feet of black 

 clayey muck. They consisted of one tusk (6 feet, 2 inches, and 

 highly curved), seventeen ribs, eight pelvic and lumbar vertebrae, 

 patella and parts of scapula and pelvis." No direct evidence is at 

 hand to determine whether the remains were those of a mastodon 

 or mammoth. The highly curved character of the tusk mentioned 

 does not warrant any generic determination such as might be pos- 

 sible if the tusk were double curved. It is not known what dis- 

 position has been made of Westfield remains. The locality where 



N. Y. State Mus. Bui. 69, 1903, p. 863, 933. 



