3. _Charleston, Charleston County._—Numerous teeth of _Elephas columbi_ have been found in the region surrounding Charleston. Godman (Amer. Nat. Hist., vol. II, p. 257) referred to a statement made by Catesby to the effect that negroes had found teeth along Stono River which they recognized as those of an elephant. This had previously been mentioned by Barton in his “Archæologia Americana,” 1814. In Holmes’s “Post-Pliocene Fossils of South Carolina,” page 108, Leidy stated that small fragments of teeth and bones, usually much water-worn, of the extinct elephant are not infrequently found in the Post-Pliocene deposits in the vicinity of Ashley River. In a footnote to this remark, F. S. Holmes stated that later a perfect tooth had been discovered and was figured on plate XVII; but the tooth there figured came from Texas.
In 1870 (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1870, p. 98), Leidy reported that he had seen in the collection of C. N. Shepard, at Amherst College, remains of elephant from Ashley River. It is certain that at least a part of these remains belonged to _Elephas columbi_. In the U. S. National Museum are teeth, recorded as having been secured from the phosphate beds about Charleston. As an example may be mentioned No. 2105, a large upper right molar, with 20 ridge-plates. Another has the number 1614 (Hay, Iowa Geol. Surv., vol. XXIII, p. 413, plate LXI, fig. 4).
In the Charleston Museum the writer has seen a lower second milk molar (No. 13504) of this species. There are 9 ridge-plates and front and rear talons. The length is 123 mm., the width 52 mm., with 8 plates in a 100–mm. line. In the same museum is an upper left second milk molar (No. 1109) with 8 plates present. The length along the base is 95 mm.; from the base in front to the rear of the crown 117 mm.; width 55 mm. This tooth appears to have been found somewhere about Charleston. In the same museum are other teeth of this species, mostly parts of the hindermost molars. Other teeth are found in the private collections of Charleston.
In the American Museum of Natural History, New York, there are some teeth (Nos. 13707, 13708) from the vicinity of Charleston which are referred to _Elephas columbi_. One is an upper hindermost molar, worn to the base in front and having left 18 plates. There are 6 plates in a 100–mm. line. The enamel is thick. The length of the tooth is 292 mm.; the width, 90 mm. Another is a worn lower tooth with 16 plates.