In his “Second Visit to the United States of North America,” edition 2, 1850, volume II, p. 196, Lyell mentions the _Megalonyx_ among other fossils found at Natchez. He states that the fossils found by Doctor Dickeson were obtained in the “Mammoth Ravine” 6 miles from Natchez.
In Southall’s “Recent Origin of Man,” 1875, page 552, is a statement made by Professor C. G. Forshey (as quoted from Foster’s “Prehistoric Races of the United States,” p. 61) in which he says that he visited the locality where the human pelvis was found and that it was situated in Bernard’s Bayou, 2.5 miles from Natchez.
In his memoir of 1853 on “Extinct Species of American Ox” (Smithson. Contrib. Knowl., vol. V, art. III, p. 10), Doctor Leidy included _Mylodon_ among the genera found at Natchez. In his memoir of 1855 on the “Extinct Sloth Tribe of North America” (Smithson. Contrib. Knowl., vol. VII, art. V, p. 48) he gave a list of the bones and brief descriptions of them. They all belonged to one individual, which was about half-grown.
In a list furnished to B. C. L. Wailles by Doctor Leidy (Wailles, Agric. Geol., Mississippi, 1854, p. 286), 4 species of _Xenarthra_ are included among the mammals found fossil in the Pleistocene of Mississippi. These are _Megalonyx jeffersonii_, _M. dissimilis_, _Mylodon harlani_, and _Ereptodon priscus_. Cope regarded _M. dissimilis_ as the same as _M. jeffersonii_, and Leidy was disposed to consider his _Ereptodon priscus_ as identical with one of the species of _Megalonyx_.
A list of the fossil vertebrates found in the vicinity of Natchez will be given on page 392.
1. _Elroy, Van Buren County._—In 1831 (Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., ser. I, vol. VI, pp. 269–286, plates XII to XIV; 1835, Med. Phys. Res., pp. 319–331, plates XII to XV), Richard Harlan described a number of bones of _Megalonyx jeffersonii_ which had been purchased for the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, and which he reported had been found in “White Cave,” Kentucky. This was supposed to be situated near Mammoth Cave. It was ascertained later that the bones had been found in Bigbone Cave, Van Buren County, Tennessee.
The bones mentioned by Harlan had belonged to a young animal and consisted of 5 vertebræ, a few fore-limb bones, a few hinder-limb bones, a scapula, a rib, and a part of a molar tooth. Some of the articulating surfaces still retained their cartilage. In the same cave were found bones of “_Bos_” (_Bison_), “_Cervus_” (_Odocoileus?_), _Ursus_, and a human metacarpal. These were said to have been found on the surface, while the megalonyx bones were buried at a depth of 2 or 3 feet. The mandible of the bear (Harlan, op. cit., p. 283) was described as displaying appearances of antiquity equal to that of the megalonyx bones. The sloth bones were made the basis of the name _Megalonyx laqueatus_. In 1855 (Smithson. Contrib. Knowl., vol. VII, art. 5, p. 4), Leidy determined that these bones belonged to _M. jeffersonii_. He wrote that the collection consisted of one molar tooth, four dorsal vertebræ, one lumbar, a left humerus lacking the upper epiphysis, the proximal two-thirds of the right ulna, the right radius, the left scapula, the distal epiphysis of the right femur, the left tibia, and the distal epiphysis of the right tibia, a right calcaneum, two claws of a hinder foot, and some fragments of ribs. Leidy appears to have concluded that these bones had been those of a young animal, but that other bones in the collection had belonged to adult individuals. He stated that they had come from Bigbone Cave, White County. This adjoins Van Buren on the north and possibly at that time included the latter; or Leidy may have been mistaken. Besides the bones above mentioned, Harlan described from this cave an ilium of _Megalonyx_ (Med. and Phys. Res., p. 334).