MASTODONS, MAMMOTHS AND OTHER PLEISTOCENE MAMMALS 93 



as below the muck, and adds that fragments of shells were found 

 adhering to the horn cores." 



Smith (ibid) also quotes part of the story related by Thomas 

 Ashe 91 as evidence of the former abundance of the bison at Syra- 

 cuse. Ashe says, in part : " The native animals of the country too, 

 as the buffalo, elk, deer etc. are well known to pay periodical visits to 

 saline springs and lakes, bathing and washing in them, and drinking 

 the water till they are hardly able to remove from the vicinity. The 

 best roads to the Onondaga from all parts, are the buffalo tracks ; 

 so called from having been observed to be made by the buffalos in 

 their annual visitations to the lake from their pasture grounds." 

 But as Allen (ibid) has pointed out, the region about Onondaga 

 was well known as early as 1670, and settlements made and a fort 

 erected prior to 1705. Had the buffalo been a periodical visitor to 

 that region in the numbers stated by Ashe, they could have hardly 

 escaped the attention of the earlier writers. That bison formerly 

 visited the central and even eastern New York can not be doubted 

 but they were probably small companies outside their normal range. 



Concerning three teeth of the bison found near Albany, N. Y., 

 J. M. Clarke 92 remarked : " Some teeth obtained in the postglacial 

 clays of the Hudson valley a few miles below Albany, in deposits 

 commonly regarded as laid down during that stage of the Mohawk 

 drainage of the Great Lakes, termed Lake Albany, have been iden- 

 tified by Dr O. P. Hay as those of the bison. Although entirely 

 exact data concerning the date and location of this discovery are 

 wanting, these teeth have come into the museum within the writer's 

 recollection and have been kept in association with a series of other 

 mammal relics from this vicinity." These teeth are the second and 

 third left upper molars and the second right lower molar. When 

 compared with teeth of the recent bison they exhibit no marked 

 difference except in size, the fossil specimens being somewhat larger. 



Interesting as evidence of the former wide distribution of the 

 bison in New York, but of less importance to the paleontologist, are 

 the remains found in graves and refuse pits of the Indians. 

 Bryant 93 records the discovery of a perfect skull on an Erie Indian 

 village site, on Cattaraugus creek, 7 miles from Lake Erie. The 

 skull was that of a female and buried to a depth of 2 feet. A por- 

 tion of the upper jaw of a bison was taken from an Indian grave 



"Travels in America, London, 1809, p. 39-41. 

 91 N. Y. State Mus. Bui. 140, p. 46, 1910. 



93 Interesting Archeological Studies in and about Buffalo. Buffalo, N. Y. 

 1890. 



