As shown by Fairchild’s plate 17 (Bull. 160, New York Geol. Surv.) and Coleman’s plate 22 (Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., XV, p. 347) this town is situated within the Iroquois beach. The elephant could, therefore, hardly have lived at or before the time of the formation of the beach; in reality it probably lived long after the lake had retired to its present limits.
In his “Catalogue of Casts of Fossils,” 1866, page 37, Henry A. Ward gave a figure of a cast of an elephant tooth, No. 143, the original of which was said to have been found at St. Catharines. This tooth may be the one now at Ottawa, but if so the figure is incorrect.
2. _Hamilton, Wentworth County._—In 1863 (Canad. Nat. and Geol., vol. VII, p. 135), a lower jaw of an elephant was described under the name _Euelephas jacksoni_ Briggs and Foster. This had been found near Hamilton, at the extreme western end of Lake Ontario. It was mentioned and figured as _Euelephas jacksoni_ in the same year by W. E. Logan (Rep. Geol. Surv. Canada, p. 914, figs. 495, 497). The specific name, however, is not to be credited to Briggs and Foster, for it was proposed by W. W. Mather in 1838 (Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. XXXIV, p. 362, figures) for a lower jaw of an elephant found in Jackson County, Ohio. This jaw is, however, from the description and the figure, wholly indeterminable. Lambe (Ottawa Naturalist, vol. XII, p. 136) presents a short history of the specimen found at Hamilton. It was reported first by T. Cottle in 1852 (Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 2, vol. X, p. 395; reprint in Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. XV, 1853, p. 282). Besides the jaw, lacking most of the left ramus, there was found a much-curved tusk nearly 7 feet long.
The writer has had the opportunity to examine this jaw, now in the Victoria Museum at Ottawa. It is believed to belong to _Elephas columbi_. The finely preserved last molar has been worn on about 9 of the ridge-plates, and this worn surface is about 110 mm. long. There are 24 plates present, and 8 of these occupy a 100–mm. line. The hinder plates lean forward and the base of the tooth is very convex.
Cottle reported that the remains were discovered at a depth of 40 feet from the surface and at an elevation of 60 feet above the level of the lake. It is stated on the label that the elevation above the lake was 70 feet, and this is the height given by Logan (Geol. Canada, 1863, p. 914). The author stated also that at an elevation of 7 feet more were found antlers of _Cervus canadensis_ and the jaw of a beaver.