FROM THE PHOSPHATE BEDS OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 213 



beds. An entire well-preserved molar, the last of the lower series, from the pro- 

 perty of the Marine and River Mining Company at Beaufort, S. C, is contained 

 in the Ashley collection of fossils of the Smithsonian Institution at the Inter- 

 national Exhibition. Most collections of Ashley fossils of moderate extent contain 

 fragments of Elephant molars, but rarely of bones. 



All the specimens of molars from the Ashley beds which I have had the oppor- 

 tunity of inspecting, belong to the coarse plated variety, which Dr. Falconer 

 referred to a species distinct from the Elephas primigenius, under the name of E. 

 columbi. For reasons elsewhere given I have been disposed to consider most of 

 the Elephant remains of North America, including molar teeth with comparatively 

 thin plates, as pertaining to a common species under Dekay's name heading the 

 present article. 



MASTODON. 



Mastodon ameriganus. 

 Leicly: Proceedings Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 1868, lt5. 

 • Remains of the common American Mastodon, principally consisting of molar 

 teeth and fragments, together with portions of tusks, are of frequent occurrence 

 among the Ashley fossils. The Smithsonian collection of the latter at the Inter- 

 national Exhibition, besides fragments of teeth, contains a well-preserved last 

 inferior molar from the Coosaw River. 



Besides remains of the former species, from the same beds, I have seen small 

 fracxments of molar teeth such as I have considered to pertain to another species 

 under the name of Mastodon obscurus. Several such fragments of upper molars 

 are contained in the collection of the Pacific Guano Company. 



MEGATHERIUM. 



Remains of the Megatherium are occasionally found in the excavations of the 

 Ashley phosphate beds. In Holmes' Post-pliocene Fossils of South Carolina, 1860, 

 page 111 (PI. XX., fig. 8), a notice is given of fragments of teeth from this locality. 

 The collection of the Pacific Guano Company contains a well-preserved specimen, 

 represented in figs. 42, 43, PI. xxxiv., consisting of the upper part of a tooth, the 

 first of the series of the left side of the lower jaw. It accords in form, proportions, 

 and size sufficiently near to the corresponding tooth of a cast in plaster of the lower 

 jaw from the skull of Megatherium americanmn, preserved in the British Museum, 

 to belong to the same species. 



A fragment of the lower extremity of a femur of the Megatherium from the 



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