POSTGLACIAL BIOTA OF THE GREAT LAKES REGION 171 



farm in the town of Coleraine on the north border of the state. The bones of 

 this animal have also been reported from Northborough, Worcester County. 191 * 

 These appear to be the only records of the presence of this animal within the 

 borders of Massachusetts. 



C. CONNECTICUT 



Postglacial records of life from land or freshwater deposits are apparently 

 rare from this state. Davis 192 thus comments on a peat deposit: "Near New 

 Haven, in the marshes of Quinnipiac River, is a deposit of excellent brick clay, 

 presumably of glacial origin, over which is superposed a peat bed of varying 

 thickness. The removal of the peat to work the clay bed by the brickmakers 

 has exposed large sections of peat which afford opportunities, unusual in the 

 United States, for studying the history of the beds. 



"In a typical section at the brickyard near "Shutzer Park" the peat rests 

 on a thin bed of gravel or sand, on top of which is a forest soil bed, in which 

 there are stumps of trees whose roots penetrate the underlying gravel. Above 

 this woody stratum the peat shows flora changing gradually from forest to 

 fresh-water sedge marsh, then to brackish, and finally to the salt marsh. The 

 stump-bearing layer is now several feet below the tide level of the undisturbed 

 marsh. The clay below the gravel has numerous woody roots much older 

 than those in the gravel. " 



A few mammalian remains have been recorded from postglacial deposits. 

 The bones of a reindeer, believed to be Rangifer tarandus, have been found in 

 the Quinnipiac Valley, two miles south of New Haven. The bones were 7 and 

 11 feet below the surface. 192a The most perfect skeleton of a mastodon yet 

 found in New England is reported by Lull 193 from Farmington, near Hartford. 



D. IOWA 



Along the Missouri River, in Iowa and Nebraska, deposits of alluvium occur 

 of wide extent and great depth. These deposits are largely referable to post- 

 Wisconsin time and their biota may be compared with that found within the 

 borders of the last great ice sheet. Little systematic work has been done to 

 differentiate the biota of the various deposits, for which reason most of the lists 

 of species are unreliable. Shimek, however, has given an excellent account of 

 post- Wisconsin deposits and biota which occur in Harrison and Monona coun- 

 ties. His list of species is repeated below. As is usual with material cast up 

 on the flood plain of a river or stream, it contains both terrestrial and fluviatile 

 species, indiscrirninately mixed. 193a 



,9ia Rice, Authors separate, pp. 3-8, 1885. 



192 Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., XXIV, p. 700, 1913. 

 1932 Dana, Amer. Journ. Sci., (iii), X, pp. 354-356. 



193 Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., XX V, p. 143, 1914. 

 193a Iowa Geol. Surv., XX, pp. 395-396, 405-410. 



