Geologist, page 73, Professor Joseph Moore, then of Earlham College,
stated that some sound teeth and decayed bones of a mastodon had been
found 2 miles east of Richmond, in scooping out a fish-pond. A label on
a lower last molar states that the remains were found on the Floyd farm.
With them were found a fragment of an incisor of _Castoroides_.
According to Leverett (Monogr. LIII, plate VI), the locality would be
outside of the Bloomington moraine of the Wisconsin drift.
MASTODONS FOUND WITHIN THE MISSISSINAWA MORAINE.
27. _Penn Township, Jay County._—Mr. David McCaslin (12th Ann. Rep.
Geol. Surv. Indiana, p. 169) stated that various remains of mastodon had
been found in Jay County. He mentioned in particular fragments found in
Penn Township (township 24 north, range 8 east) and which seemed to
indicate the presence of an entire skeleton. It is, however, possible
that this skeleton was that of an elephant. The Salamonie moraine passes
diagonally through this township.
28. _Fort Wayne, Allen County._—Richard Lydekker (Foss. Mamm. Brit.
Mus., pt. IV, p. 17) stated that there is in the British Museum of
Natural History a cast of the left half of the brain of an immature
specimen of mastodon which had been found at Fort Wayne. The cast had
been sent to that museum by the Chicago Academy of Science.
Professor C. R. Dryer (16th Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv. Indiana, p. 129)
reported five skeletons of mastodons found in Allen County. No
particulars were given. A note from Professor Dryer to the present
writer states that he had been unable to obtain additional information.
It is not unlikely that some of these remains belonged to elephants, but
doubtless some were those of mastodons. It is to be regretted that so
little of value is secured from such discoveries.
29. _DeKalb County, 5 miles west of Waterloo._—In the Carnegie Museum at
Pittsburgh there is a quite complete skeleton of a mastodon which was
found in 1897, in a peat-bog about 5 miles west of Waterloo. Dr. W. J.
Holland gave a brief account of this skeleton in 1905 (Ann. Carnegie
Mus., vol. III, p. 464). The exact location of the place has not been
ascertained by the writer. According to Leverett’s map (Monograph LIII,
U. S. Geological Survey) this mastodon was buried on the eastern border
of the Salamonie moraine, and it could not have lived there until well
along in the latter part of the Wisconsin stage.
55. _DeKalb County, 5 miles northeast of Waterloo._—Dr. W. J. Holland
(Popular Science, New York, vol. XXXIII, 1899, p. 233) described the
finding and disinterment of three mastodons and had a figure of one
skeleton. One of the nearly complete skeletons was found resting on
“hardpan,” partly embedded in a thin layer of shell marl and muck under
the peat, at points not more than 3 feet below the surface.
56. _Noble County._—Under this number may be mentioned the following
discovery of mastodon remains: In the American Naturalist, volume II,
1868, page 56, was reported a communication made to the Chicago Academy
of Science by Dr. Meyers, of Fort Wayne. He announced that he and Dr.
Stimpson, of Chicago, had unearthed the skeletons of three mastodons
somewhere in Noble County, in a basin-shaped depression in the middle of
a corn-field, formerly a willow swamp. One of the animals was a young
one. Some of the bones had been found by Mr. Thrush, in digging a ditch
through his land.
The skeletons lay at a depth of 4 or 5 feet, in a stratum of peat which
overlay blue clay containing lacustrine shells. In the peat were found
fragments of boughs and branches of several kinds of wood in a good
state of preservation, and some fragments had been gnawed by beavers.
30. _Ashley, Steuben County._—The American Museum of Natural History,
New York, contains the fine skull of a mastodon, found in Steuben
Township not far from Ashley. The finder of the skull, Mr. Walter F.
Deller, of Ashley, informed the writer that it was discovered in a swamp
which was being drained, about 5 feet from the surface. He states that
the bones lay in a marl, itself overlain by muck, and on top of all some
soil which had been washed in. So far as can be determined, the animal
was buried between the Mississinawa and the Salamonie moraines. With the
skull were found other parts of the skeleton, which shows that the
remains were in their original place of burial.
MASTODONS FOUND OUTSIDE OF MISSISSINAWA MORAINE AND BETWEEN WABASH AND
KANKAKEE RIVERS.
31. _Beaver Lake, Newton County._—In 1870 (Geol. Surv. Illinois, vol.
IV, p. 229), Frank H. Bradley reported that in draining Beaver Lake, in
Newton County, mastodon remains had been found, in company with
_Boötherium_. No details were furnished, and it is not known what was
done with the specimens. It is probable that the musk-ox belonged to the
species _Symbos cavifrons_. It occurs over the country much more
abundantly than any other musk-ox.
Beaver Lake has disappeared from the maps, but it is shown on the
geological map of Indiana, published in the Eighteenth Annual Report of
the Geological Survey of Indiana. The lake occupied a part of the
present township of McClellan (township 30 north, range 9 west).
Doubtless this lake existed ever since the retirement of the ice from
that region. The mastodon was probably found in making the ditch from
the lake in a northwesterly direction into the Kankakee River.
32. _Jasper County._—John Collett, at that time State geologist,
reported in 1882 (12th Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv. Indiana, p. 73) that
remains of a mastodon had been found in this county, but no particulars
were furnished. He stated that remains of this species, as well as those
of the mammoth, were buried in deposits of peat. A portion of the county
is occupied by the Marseilles morainic system, the remainder by the
Kankakee marsh, perhaps largely a lake during the latter part of the
Wisconsin stage. On the maps the number 32 is placed arbitrarily.
33. _Denham, Pulaski County._—In 1915 the U. S. National Museum secured
a large part of the skeleton of a mastodon found about 2 miles west of
Denham. The locality is described to the writer by Mr. W. D. Pattison,
of Winamac, as being on the half-section line between the southeast
quarter of the northwest quarter and the northeast quarter of the
southwest quarter of section 9, township 31 north, range 3 west. This
would be not far west from the center of the section. The skeleton was
thrown out by the shovel of the ditching machine, but most of the bones,
including the skull, were obtained in quite good condition. They were
found at a depth of about 9 feet, in a marly deposit, itself overlain by
sandy materials.
On consulting Leverett’s glacial map of Indiana it is seen that this
skeleton was found in a marshy tract, in which Monon River rises. It is
represented by Leverett as a ground moraine plain, surrounded by plains
covered by sand and displaying sand dunes. It forms a part of what has
been called Kankakee Lake, but which, as Leverett says, may have been in
late Pleistocene times not greatly unlike what it has been within Recent
times. It must have been well along in the afternoon of the Wisconsin
stage when this mastodon tempted the insecure footing of these swamps.
This skeleton has been mounted and is now on exhibition at the U. S.
National Museum.
34. _Rich Grove Township, Pulaski County._—Mr. J. W. Gidley, of the
National Museum, and Mr. F. M. Williams, of Winamac, Indiana, in 1915,
saw some mastodon bones which had been found here. No details have been
reported.
49. _Indian Creek Township, Pulaski County._—From Dr. E. S. Riggs, of
Field Museum of Natural History, it has been learned that in June 1914,
about half of the skeleton of a mastodon was found on the farm of Mr.
William Battie, 5 miles west of Oak, Pulaski County. This would be in
township 29 north, range 2 west. The skeleton was encountered by
ditchers at a depth of 3 feet, in black loam. It was not secured for the
Field Museum of Natural History.
35. _Royal Center, Cass County._—Mr. Gidley and Mr. Williams, as
mentioned under No. 34, saw also some mastodon remains which were from
about 2 miles west of Royal Center.
48. _Fulton, Fulton County._—The American Museum of Natural History, New
York, contains several mastodon bones secured by Mr. Barnum Brown in
1915, but which had been found by Mr. Arthur Fry, in July 1913. These
remains were met with in excavating for abutments for a bridge and had
been thrown out of a drainage ditch. The bones were disassociated and
scattered over a considerable area. They were all in black muck
overlying compact quicksand and about 4 feet below the black loam
surface soil. From Mr. Fry it is learned that the locality is 2 miles
southeast of Fulton. This is in township 29 north, range 2 east, and
quite certainly in section 36. Mr. Fry wrote that in digging up these
bones logs were found that had been gnawed by beavers.
Dr. W. D. Matthew informs the writer that on cleaning up the materials
there proved to be present at least four individuals. One was
represented by a very complete skull with portions of the tusks. There
was another skull; also two lower jaws which appeared not to belong to
either of the skulls. From the shortness and the diameter of the tusks
it is believed that all the individuals were females. Besides the skulls
there were many bones belonging to the trunk and the limbs.
36. _Macy, Miami County._—Near this place was found the fine skeleton of
a mastodon which is mounted and on exhibition in the Public Museum at
Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A figure of this has been published by the writer
(36th Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv. Indiana, p. 659).
This skeleton was found, according to Mr. H. L. Ward, director of the
museum mentioned, in 1907, in the northwest quarter of section 29,
township 29, range 4 east, between Macy and Deedsville. This locality is
on the great moraine which lies north of Eel River and was produced by
the ice fronts of the Michigan, the Saginaw, and the Lake Erie lobes.
According to a sketch and some notes furnished to Mr. Ward by Mr. C. F.
Fite, who secured the skeleton, it was lying at the lower end of an
8–shaped area of low muck land surrounded by rather high sandy land. The
skeleton was buried at a depth of 4 or 5 feet, and the surface was miry
and covered with water. Mr. Fite concluded from the position of the
bones that the animal had become mired. He says in a letter to the
present writer that the contents of the stomach had been preserved, but
on exposure to the air became powdery like ashes.
Mr. Fite writes that he took up portions of another mastodon in the
southwest quarter of section 26, township 29 north, range 5 east (Perry
Township), and that he has the lower jaw and teeth. This animal was
found in an old pond which had a growth of buttonwood. The bones were in
a blue clay, itself overlain by a rich black soil.
Still another mastodon is reported by Mr. Fite from this region. This
was found in the fall of 1915, in the northwest quarter of section 12,
township 29 north, range 3 east. The remains were found at a depth of 4
feet and were in a pretty fair state of preservation, except the skull.
The animal had been a large one.
37. _Peru, Miami County._—In the collection of Yale University is a
lower left last molar, No. 11689, labeled as having come from Peru, but
there is no other information. Peru is on the Wabash River, a few miles
south of Denver.
51. _Jackson Township, Miami County._—Mr. Fite reports having found
another mastodon in the southeast quarter of section 11, Jackson
Township, Miami County (T. 25 N., R. 5 E.). This would be not far from
Pipe Creek, between Somerset and Amboy, and some miles outside of the
Mississinawa moraine. The writer has seen these bones, mostly vertebræ,
and agrees with the identification.
38. _Laketon, Wabash County._—Elrod and Benedict state (17th Ann. Rep.
Geol. Surv. Indiana, p. 240) that in 1872 a nearly complete skeleton of
a mastodon was found about 2 miles west of this place, in digging a
ditch at the roadside. The exact location is in section 8, township 29
north, range 6 east, near the bank of Silver Creek. The political name
of the township is Pleasant. This would be on the southern border of the
great moraine already mentioned as running northeastward and
southwestward, north of Eel River. After some litigation the skeleton
was put on exhibition at Fort Wayne.
In throwing up an embankment for a bridge across Silver Creek, workmen
found in the same township, as reported by Elrod and Benedict, bones of
_Elephas primigenius_. They were under 5 feet of muck.
39. _North Manchester, Wabash County._—Elrod and Benedict, as cited
above, reported that a jawbone with two teeth in it had been found on
the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter of section 1, township
29, range 7 east. This is about 3 miles east of North Manchester. The
description given of these teeth shows that the jaw was that of a
mastodon. It was found beneath 2.5 feet of solid blue clay. According to
Leverett’s map, the locality is not far west of the outer border of the
Mississinawa moraine.
40. _Lagrange, Lagrange County._—Professor Donaldson Bodine, now
deceased, formerly of Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Indiana, informed
the writer that there are in Wabash College some teeth and other parts
of a mastodon, which were found in 1910 in some dredging operations near
Lagrange.
H. Pohlig (Bull. Soc. Belge Géol., etc., vol. XXVI, 1912, p. 187)
described a lower jaw, found somewhere about Lagrange, which he referred
to _Tetracaulodon ohioticum_. It contained a small tusk 230 mm. long and
40 mm. in diameter. There was present also an alveolus for the other
tusk. He accepts the genus _Tetracaulodon_ for mastodons “a quatre
défenses permanentes sans émail représenté par le _Mastodon ohioticum_.”
Individuals without lower tusks are regarded by him as females.
In Ward’s Natural Science Establishment, Rochester, New York, there is,
or was, a lower jaw of a mastodon from Lagrange County.
The writer has received a photograph showing the right fore-leg, two
ribs, two tusks, and a lower jaw of a mastodon found in 1884, in a
swamp, 4 miles northwest of Lagrange. The remains were embedded in a
clayey marl deposit, at a depth of from 4 to 10 feet. They are said to
have been exhumed by Dr. H. M. Betts. The hindermost lower molar shows
five crests and a heel. On the right side is a small lower tusk.
Lagrange is situated at the junction of moraines formed by the Saginaw
and the Huron-Erie lobes of the Wisconsin glacier. From this the
Lagrange moraine runs off northwestward (Leverett, Monogr. U. S. Geol.
Surv., LIII, p. 143). Parts of the county are occupied by till plains
and others by sand and gravel plains and channels of glacial drainage.
At the time these mastodons lived in Steuben and Lagrange Counties, the
Wisconsin ice must have retired quite beyond the limits of the State.
MASTODONS FOUND NORTH OF KANKAKEE RIVER.
41. _Lowell, Lake County._—Mr. M. W. Ponto, Lowell, Indiana, has sent to
the U. S. National Museum a photograph of a lower right hinder molar
(apparently not yet having come into use) of a mastodon. This was found
at a depth of 2 feet 9 inches in a trench for a tile drain. The locality
is in the southwest quarter of the northeast quarter of section 36,
township 33 north, range 9 west. This is on the southern border of what
Leverett (Monogr. LIII, p. 175) regards as possibly the westward
continuation of the Kalamazoo morainic system of the Lake Michigan
glacial lobe.
42 to 44. _Porter County._—In 1898 (22d Rep. Geol. Surv. Ind.),
Professor W. S. Blatchley reported mastodons from various localities in
this county; he probably did not see these remains, and the
identifications must be regarded as somewhat doubtful. Nevertheless it
is more probable that the bones and teeth belonged to the mastodon than
to any of the elephants. The latter, however, have been found in this
same county. It is rather remarkable that so little definite knowledge
has been preserved regarding the proboscideans found in this corner of
Indiana.
42. _Hebron, Porter County._—One of the localities just mentioned is in
section 25, township 33 north, range 7 west, about 3 miles southeast of
Hebron. No other information has been obtained about this specimen.
Other remains are said to have been found in a marsh, by the side of
Cobb’s Creek, just east of Hebron.
43. _Kouts, Porter County._—Another find of mastodon remains, as
reported by Professor Blatchley, was near Sandyhook, northwest of Kouts.
Mr. C. H. Wolbrandt, of Kouts, has informed the writer that a tooth,
probably that referred to by Professor Blatchley, was found some years
ago in a ditch being made in the Sandyhook marsh. The tooth was found in
a mucky soil at a depth of about 2 feet.
The remains which were found east of Hebron and the tooth found near
Kouts were buried near the northern border of the Kankakee marsh, which
probably was, since the passing of the Wisconsin ice, no less a marsh
than within historical times, and perhaps during some of the time a
lake.
44. _Valparaiso, Porter County._—Professor Blatchley, as quoted above,
reported that some remains of a mastodon were found about 2 miles
southwest of Valparaiso. The locality is in the southwest quarter of
section 27, township 35 north, range 6 west. This would be on the
Valparaiso moraine.
45. _Valparaiso, Porter County._—The writer has learned from Mr. Jacob
Davis, of Hebron, that in dredging at a point about 5 miles southeast of
Valparaiso he met with a skeleton of a mastodon and secured a large
number of bones at a depth of 8 feet; but some of them were carried off
by curiosity hunters. It is depressing to think that such remains should
be preserved for thousands of years only to be put to such trivial uses.
This locality would be in the Kankakee marshes.
46. _Olive Township, St. Joseph County._—In the museum at Notre Dame
University are considerable remains of a mastodon, found about 1902 in
Olive Township, about 12 miles west or southwest of Notre Dame.
Professor Kirsch has sent a photograph of a tooth of _Elephas
primigenius_ which was found in Olive Township. Apparently the mastodon
and the elephant were living together late in the Wisconsin stage.
47. _Notre Dame, St. Joseph County._—From Rev. A. M. Kirsch the writer
learns that remains of two mastodons have been found in the region about
Notre Dame, within a few feet of the surface. All these localities are
within the area of Kankakee marsh. These specimens are now in the fine
collection of that university.
For 48, 49 see page 97; for 50 see page 92; for 51 see page 98; for 52
see page 90; for 53 see page 94; for 54 see page 91; for 55 and 56 see
page 95.
ILLINOIS.
(Maps 5, 38.)
OUTSIDE OF AREA OF ILLINOIAN DRIFT.
1. _Shawneetown, Gallatin County._—In 1875 (vol. VI, Geol. Surv.
Illinois, p. 214), Professor E. T. Cox reported that teeth of a mastodon
had been found the preceding summer close to the water’s edge in front
of Shawneetown. They were embedded in a shallow deposit of bluish clay
which rested upon yellow clay and gravel. Michael Robinson, of
Shawneetown, states in a letter that he has in his cabinet teeth of
mastodon and mammoth, found about that town. The bluffs bordering the
Ohio River at Shawneetown were regarded by Leverett (Monogr. U. S. Geol.
Surv., XXXVIII, plate VI) as of Wisconsin age, consisting of outwash
from the ice-sheet lying farther north.
A. H. Worthen (vol. VI, Geol. Surv. Illinois, p. 39) stated that a fine
tooth of a mastodon, found in Gallatin County, had been presented to the
State cabinet, but no exact history of it was known.
2. _Chester, Randolph County._—A note in the Kansas City Review of
Science and Industry, volume VII, 1883, page 351, taken apparently from
a newspaper at Chester, states that a mastodon’s tusk and skull had been
discovered in Chester. It was expected that Professor A. H. Worthen,
State geologist of Illinois at that time, would arrive and conduct the
exhumation. Later (Geol. Surv. Illinois, vol. VIII, p. 8) Worthen stated
that a mastodon had been found at Chester; but no details were added.
With so little knowledge as to exact locality and the surroundings the
discovery is of little value.
WITHIN AREA COVERED BY ILLINOIAN DRIFT.
3. _Beaucoup, Washington County._—In 1857, the geologist J. W. Foster
reported (Proc. Amer. Assoc. Adv. Science, vol. X, Nat. Hist., p. 163)
that remains of a mastodon had been discovered by workmen in making an
excavation along the Illinois Central Railroad, near the town of
Beaucoup. The bones were at a depth of 18 feet in the prairie drift,
below the yellow clay and in the older or reddish clay. No details were
given as to what bones were found or what was done with them.
Most of this county is covered by Illinoian drift. Leverett (Monogr. U.
S. Geol. Surv., XXXVIII, p. 770) states that on the higher lands this
has a depth of from 10 to 20 feet. One might suppose that at a depth of
18 feet some pre-Illinoian interglacial deposit had been encountered. It
is not at all probable that the bones of the mastodon were inclosed in
the drift itself.
4. _East St. Louis, St. Clair County._—Dr. F. V. Hayden (Proc. Acad.
Nat. Sci. Phila., 1866, p. 316) announced the finding of a tooth of a
mastodon in the bluffs opposite St. Louis. This was probably in St.
Clair County.
In the American Museum of Natural History, New York, is a lower right
last molar of a mastodon, labeled as having been found in St. Clair
County, but there is no other information.
In the collection of the St. Louis Academy of Science there are two
teeth of a mastodon, right and left last upper molars, which had been
brought in by a boy and presented to the Academy. He said that they had
been found in East St. Louis and had been in the possession of the
family for some time. The length of the left molar is 175 mm., the width
102 mm. While the valley of the Mississippi River is here filled by
deposits laid down during the Wisconsin stage (Leverett, op cit., plate
VI) and by later-formed alluvium, Illinoian drift enters into the
bluffs, and perhaps pre-Illinoian interglacial soils. It is, therefore,
of interest that there should be an exact record made of the place of
discovery of every bone and tooth found, the character of the deposit,
and the depth of burial. In all the cases here recorded no such records
have been kept.
5. _Alton, Madison County._—In 1866 (Geol. Surv. Illinois, vol. I, p.
315; 1871, Amer. Naturalist, vol. V, p. 607), A. H. Worthen reported
that a part of a jawbone of a mastodon, with two teeth in it, had been
found in the lower part of the loess, 30 feet below the surface, at some
point just above Alton. The jaw was separated from the limestone by 2 or
3 feet of local drift. The bone was of a chalky whiteness and in a fine
state of preservation. Worthen wrote that the loess on the bluffs in
this region is from 40 to 80 feet in thickness, but appears in places to
have been removed by erosion, so that it comes down to the rock.
Reference is made by Worthen later (Geol. Surv. Illinois, vol. VIII, p.
8) to the discoveries of vertebrate fossils in the drift and loess of
this region. He mentions that Hon. William McAdams found, at Alton and
Chester, remains of mastodon, mammoth, megalonyx, castoroides, and “_Bos
primigenius_.” McAdams’s collection is now in the U. S. National Museum
and a list of the species is presented on page 339. These species were
described by the writer in 1920 (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. LVIII, pp.
109–117). In it are only two fragments of molars of this species.
In the collection at Yale University (No. 11713) is an upper left last
molar of a mastodon, obtained from Mr. McAdams. The enamel is very
white. There is on the label the date “Feb. 21, 1888.” This may be one
of the teeth referred to above, and the date may refer to the date of
purchase.