MASTODONS, MAMMOTHS AND OTHER PLEISTOCENE MAMMALS 89 



an account of a pair of elk horns dug up on a farm about 4 miles 

 from Gouverneur, St Lawrence county, in 1898. " They were acci- 

 dentally discovered while digging out a spring hole in a pasture to 

 provide water for cattle during the dry season. One horn is in per- 

 fect state of preservation, the other has been influenced somewhat 

 by exposure, but not enough to in any way destroy the symmetry. 

 The perfect one measures from root to tip 39 inches, and biggest 

 circumference 8^4 inches. They each have five prongs, and when 

 placed in approximate apposition have at widest point a spread of 

 34 inches opposite biggest prong." 77 



A single horn dug from a bog at Cananderago, Otsego county, is 

 recorded by Mitchill. 78 



In the muck, above the clay in which the Attica, Wyoming 

 county, mastodon remains were resting, the ankle bones of a large 

 ruminant, probably an elk, were found in 1887. 79 



Near the outlet of Cassadaga lake, Chautauqua county, about 20 

 miles south of Dunkirk, a skeleton of an elk was found in marl 

 overlaid by muck. The exact circumstances of the discovery are 

 not known but the bones were found sometime before 1907 and were 

 for a time in the possession of Mr Obed Edson. 



The basal portions of a pair of large shed antlers from a swamp 

 near Beekmantown Corners, Clinton county, were found by Joseph 

 Ouimette in 1887 and recently loaned to the State Museum for 

 study by Prof. George H. Hudson of Plattsburg. These horns give 

 no indication of having been water-worn and the tines, except one, 

 are roughly broken at the tips. An interesting abnormality, evi- 

 dently the result of fracture while in the velvet, is presented in one 

 of the brow tines which is almost twice the diameter of the corre- 

 sponding member. 



These horns may be regarded as fossil only in the sense that they 

 were dug from the ground and belonged to animals now extinct 

 within the State. It is likely that they were dropped where found 

 within the last century. 



Rangifer sp. Caribou 



The earliest notice of the discovery of remains of caribou in New 

 York that has come to our attention, is given in an article by Ebe- 

 nezer Emmons, entitled "The Lost Races." 80 After a dissertation 



"N. Y. State M'us. Bui. 29, 1899, p. 302. 



78 Mitchill, Cat. Organic Remains, N. Y. 1826. 



"Clarke, N. Y. State Mus. 41st Annual Rep't, 1888, p. 389. 



M Amer. Jour, of Agr. and Sci., 1845, 2:201, 



