74 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



northwest flank (see pi. 24). South of, or behind, this islandlike mass is a 

 large river channel about the dimensions of the Syracuse channel. 

 Whether the floor is rock or alluvium has not been determined, but in 

 either case the form and surface are due to the sweeping by a great river 

 before the ice had opened a passage north of the outlying hill. The canal 

 follows the north side of the broad channel. 



Niagara County 



7 and 8 1912. Lewiston. (E. primigenius.) Plate 10, 



upper figure. In 1912, parts of the remains of two mammoths 



were found in a large sand and gravel pit of a terrace not more 



than 40 rods north of the New York Central Railroad station at 



Lewiston. The finding of two nearly perfect atlases indicates that 



the bones represent at least two animals. Altogether about 35 pieces 



of bones were found, many of which are too badly broken or 



crumbled to be identified. Some of the bones show the effect 



of being moved about with the sand and gravel as they are 



water-woven. Among the bones that can be recognized are the 



pelvis, two or three broken ribs, one vertebra, some foot bones 



and the beach-worn joints of some of the larger leg bones. Of 



the teeth, one complete molar (plate 17) and parts of two other 



molars were found. According to Frank Lonsdale, pit foreman, 



who collected the remains and from whom they were obtained for 



the State Museum, the bones were found in several layers of sand 



and gravel aggregating 6 to 10 feet in thickness and 20 to 40 feet 



below the original flat top of the terrace, but the actual depth below 



the surface at the point where found was not less than 20 feet. 



The filling of the place where the bones were found made the exact 



determination of depth impossible when the gravel pit was later 



visited. As the surface of the filled hole was 20 feet below the top 



of the pit, actual depth at which the higher bones were found must 



have been at least 20 feet ; and as they were scattered in layers 6 to 



10 feet thick some of the bones must have come from a depth of 



at least 26 feet and possibly from a depth of 30 feet. On account 



of the bearing which the age of the gravels in which the bones were 



found has to the age in which the mammoths lived, the following 



geological history of the sand and gravel deposits at Lewiston is 



given : 37 



Spits. — The larger gravel pits just north of the landing at Lewiston show 

 one of the most remarkable sections of Pleistocene gravel to be seen in the 

 region. The beds are of clean gravel and include some coarse layers con- 



/ 



"Kindle and Taylor. U. S. G. S., Niagara Folio, no. 190 (1913), p. 13. 

 See also Geol. Sur. Can. Guide Book No. 4, 12th International Congress, 

 1913, P- 65-68. 



