Advancement of Science, at its meeting in 1856 (Proc. Amer. Assoc. Adv.
Sci., vol. X, 1857, p. 163), the geologist J. W. Foster stated that at
Sandoval, on the Illinois Central Railroad, mastodon remains had been
found at a depth of 12 feet, under conditions similar to those existing
near Beaucoup, in Washington County. Here again there is a poverty of
information. In this county there is, in many places, a very compact
white clay overlying the Illinoian drift. The relations of this to the
drift are not well understood. At a depth of 12 feet in this clay the
Illinoian drift might not be reached in some places, while at this depth
in the drift a pre-Illinoian deposit might be encountered.
7. _Near Niantic, Macon County._—In 1873 (Geol. Surv. Illinois, vol. V,
p. 308), A. H. Worthen gave an account of finding some remains of a
mastodon in this county, near the line between it and Sangamon County
and between Illiopolis and Niantic, on a farm then owned by Mr. William
F. Correll. The American Journal of Science, volume 50, page 422, in a
note regarding the discovery, states that the place is 1.5 miles
southeast of Illiopolis. A well was being sunk in a low, spongy piece of
ground, which had evidently been a pond filled up by wash from the
surrounding higher ground. At a depth of 4 feet two tusks were found,
one measuring 7 feet in length and about 8 inches in circumference, the
lower jaw containing the teeth, the teeth of the upper jaw, and some
small bones. Besides these remains of the mastodon, there were found
some bones of the buffalo and deer, and two antlers of an elk. The bones
of these yet existing species are said to have been found at the same
depth as the mastodon bones, but were of a lighter color and less
decayed.
The bones were partly embedded in a light-gray quicksand, filled with
small fresh-water shells. Above this was 4 feet of black peaty soil.
In the eighth volume of the Geological Survey of Illinois, on page 23,
Worthen wrote that some of the smaller bones of the mastodon and those
of the other animals, except the antlers of the elk, were preserved in
the State Museum of Natural History, at Springfield.
In the museum of the Chicago Academy of Science are, as reported by the
curator, Frank C. Baker, to Netta C. Anderson (Augustana Lib. Pubs. No.
5, p. 14), two rami of the lower jaw and several molars of a mastodon,
all well preserved. They are labeled as having been found in Macon
County, “6 miles from Abraham Lincoln’s first home” and as having been
presented by C. F. Günther. With these is an upper tooth which probably
belonged with the same lot as the lower jaw. There can hardly be a doubt
that this jaw and these teeth are those described by Worthen. The finder
had probably sold them to Mr. Günther, of Chicago, who had a private
collection.
The region about Niantic is within the area of the Illinoian drift, so
that the bones must have been deposited in the pond after the passing
away of the Illinoian ice-sheet.
Dr. F. C. Baker (Bull. Univ. Illinois, vol. XVII, p. 300), in speaking
of this case, says that the deposit rests on Illinoian drift and hence
it appears referable to the Sangamon interval. It seems to the present
writer that these animals belong to a later time, possibly the Late
Wisconsin. The locality is about 5 miles from Sangamon River. One might
suppose that time enough had elapsed after the Illinoian for the
drainage of the pond that must once have been there. Also, Worthen in
his account states the uplands are covered by loess from 6 to 20 feet in
thickness. One might expect that the pond would have been filled up with
the loess which had blown into it and which had been washed into it from
the surrounding higher land. These considerations are of course not
final. The Wisconsin moraine is not far away, and it is possible that
outwash from this was responsible for the pond and that the animals
lived after the glacier had passed away.
8. _Warsaw, Hancock County._—In Netta C. Anderson’s “Preliminary List of
Fossil Mastodon and Mammoth Remains in Illinois and Iowa” (Augustana
Lib. Pubs. No. 5) it was reported by Mr. C. K. Worthen, of Warsaw, that
a part of a mastodon tooth had been found sticking out of a bank of a
creek 5 miles below the town mentioned.
The writer has seen in the collection of the Philadelphia Academy, from
near Warsaw, a part of a lower second molar, labeled as having been
found at a depth of 10 feet, 3 miles east of the Mississippi River. It
was presented by G. W. Hall.
9. _Manito, Mason County._—In the U. S. National Museum is a large upper
right second molar, No. 7801, presented in 1913 by Mr. John Wiedmer, of
St. Louis. This was found by his workmen near Manito, in a peat deposit,
at a depth of 5 feet, embedded in the top of a layer of sand which
underlies the peat. At about the same depth was found a part of the
skull of _Symbos cavifrons_, also presented to the U. S. National
Museum. The place of discovery more exactly given is in section 22,
township 23, range 6.
This locality is within the area of the Illinoian drift. On the east, a
few miles away, is the foot of the great Shelbyville moraine; while very
near, toward the west, there are, according to Leverett (op. cit., plate
VI) widely spread deposits brought down by the Illinois River from the
Wisconsin ice-sheet. The geological conditions here seem to make it
probable that both animals lived near the close of the Wisconsin stage.
There may, however, have been a considerable interval between the times
of the two animals; for peat, sometimes at least, accumulates very
slowly. In proof of this may be cited the case of mastodons found near
the surface of peat swamps in Michigan. In the same peat-swamp at Manito
were found at depths of 3 or 4 feet some Indian flint implements. These
are in the collection of the U. S. National Museum.
10. _Knox County._—On page 14 of Netta C. Anderson’s list, already
mentioned, Professor Albert Hurd, curator of the museum of Knox College,
Galesburg, reported that there was in the collection a well-preserved
tooth of a mastodon found in the bed of Spoon River, which runs across
the southeastern part of the county. Exactly where along this stream the
tooth was discovered is not on record.
11. _Cambridge, Henry County._—In Netta C. Anderson’s list, on page 12,
Professor Frank C. Baker, then curator of the Chicago Academy of
Science, reported that there is in the collection a part of a tusk of a
mastodon, found at Cambridge, in digging a well, at a depth of 16 feet.
In this case one can not be certain that the tusk did not belong to one
of the elephants. From information accompanying the specimen one can
determine little about the exact geological age of the animal. It is
probably post-Illinoian.
12. _Rural Township, Rock Island County._—Dr. J. A. Udden (in Netta C.
Anderson’s list, p. 18) reported that there is in the collection of
Augustana College, Rock Island, a well-preserved tooth of a mastodon,
found in 1900, in a creek in the township named, in the southeastern
corner of the county. Udden gives the locality as being in section 19,
township 16 north, range 1 west.
In the same institution (J. A. Udden, Augustana Coll., Pub. No. V, p.
12) is a part of a proboscidean tusk, referred to the mastodon, which
Dr. Udden states was found near Milan, at the base of the loess, in the
red oxidized layer of the Illinoian boulder clay. The locality is on the
north side of Rock River and on the east side of the Milan road south of
Rock Island. The conditions would seem to indicate that the animal had
lived about the close of the Illinoian drift stage.
About June 15, 1916, Mr. A. Daxon, of Omaha, Nebraska, sent photographs
of two mastodon teeth to the U. S. National Museum for identification.
These teeth were found in Bowling Township, Rock Island County, 10 or 12
miles south of Rock Island, but no further information about them has
been secured.
Professor J. A. Paarmann, curator of the Davenport, Iowa, Academy of
Sciences, has written that he had seen a finely preserved mastodon tooth
which had been picked up on the surface of the ground a mile west of
Milan. The land around about is swampy. The tooth was in the possession
of Edward Herbert, Rock Island, Illinois, but the present writer has not
been able to get any information from him.
13. _Sterling, Whiteside County._—In the U. S. National Museum (No.
4222) is a mastodon molar, recorded as found near the town named. It was
transmitted through the U. S. Geological Survey and credited to T. A.
Schroder. It is said to have been found with other teeth and parts of
the skeleton, so that there is little probability that the skeleton was
disturbed after its original interment. It is to be regretted that so
little information was allowed to come with the specimen.
Sterling is in a region of very complicated Pleistocene geology. South
of it is an extensive region of swamps and deposits referred by Leverett
(op. cit., plate VI) to “sand and gravel plains of Wisconsin age.” North
of the town is drift mapped by Leverett as Iowan, but which is now
regarded as Illinoian. As to the age of the tooth in question, no
probable conclusion can be formed, except that it is of post-Illinoian
time.
27. _Walnut, Bureau County._—In the American Museum of Natural History,
in New York City, there are three molars (No. 10666), belonging to each
side of the upper jaw of a mastodon which was found somewhere near
Walnut, in Bureau County.
14. _New Milford, Winnebago County._—According to S. P. Lathrop (Amer.
Jour. Sci., vol. XII, 1851, p. 439), a large tooth of a mastodon, in a
fine state of preservation, was found in the Kishwaukee River, being
brought up in a seine.
The geology about New Milford is not well worked out. The deposits along
the Kishwaukee were probably laid down during or shortly after the
Wisconsin stage.
15. _Byron, Ogle County._—In 1873 (Geol. Surv. Illinois, vol. V, p.
110), James Shaw reported that a tooth identified as that of a mastodon
had been found, in 1858, in a tributary of Stillman’s Run, somewhere in
the region about Byron. The locality is low and marshy. The tooth is
described as having been a ponderous grinder, weighing 7.5 pounds, and
to have been covered with a black and shining enamel. A large mastodon
tooth, just out of the water, might attain such a weight. The statement
regarding the enamel confirms the identification.
Shaw reported further that a large leg-bone, supposed to belong to a
mastodon, had been found 2 or 3 miles above Byron, along the bank of
Rock River, 5 feet below the surface and about 15 feet above ordinary
water-level. It was sent to the State Museum at Springfield. This may
have belonged to one of the elephants.
_Harper, Ogle County._—In Netta C. Anderson’s list, on page 15, is a
report from Miss Abba Eager, of Forreston, concerning a tooth of a
mastodon found on the farm of Mr. Gross, in Forreston Township, about a
mile south of Harper, in the bed of a small stream. Another tooth had
been found there a short time before.
Byron is on Rock River, and the tooth was probably in alluvial deposits
laid down after the recession of the Wisconsin ice. Harper is near the
western border of the county and Illinoian drift covers the country. All
that can be said in the case of the teeth found is that the possessors
lived after the Illinoian stage.
16. _Urbana, Champaign County._—In the collection of the Illinois State
University the writer saw a lower right last molar of a mastodon, found
June 1, 1911, at Crystal Lake park, 1.5 miles northeast of the
university.
_Pesotum, Champaign County._—In 1909, Mr. Rufus M. Bagg (Univ. Ill.
Bull., vol. VI, No. 17, p. 49) recorded the fact that a mastodon tooth
with some bones had been found near Pesotum, on the farm of Mr. Pfeffer,
at a depth of 3.5 feet, in digging a ditch.
Inasmuch as this whole region is covered by Wisconsin drift, the animal
could not have lived there before the ice which deposited the Champaign
moraine had withdrawn. It probably lived there long after the ice had
retreated, possibly about the time when the megalonyx, whose claw alone
is left as a memorial of his former existence, lived in that region.
17. _Edgar County._—In 1870 (Geol. Surv. Illinois, vol. IV, p. 266),
Frank H. Bradley, in describing the topography of Edgar County, stated
that a nearly perfect skeleton of a mastodon had been found in one of
the sloughs of the prairie region which prevails in the western part of
the county. It was said that after having been exhibited over that
region it was sold to some museum in Philadelphia, but the writer has
been unable to obtain further information.
In 1857 (Proc. Amer. Assoc. Adv. Science, vol. X, Nat. Hist., p. 10), J.
W. Foster reported that a jaw and three teeth of a mastodon had been
found in yellow clay, about 3 feet from the surface, at Bloomfield, in
this county. This name has disappeared from the maps and gazetteers.
A little of the southern border of the county is occupied by Illinoian
drift, but the greater part is covered by drift of Wisconsin age. The
mastodons reported probably lived after the retirement of the last ice
of the Glacial period.
18. _Fairmount, Vermillion County._—In 1870, Frank H. Bradley (Geol.
Surv. Illinois, vol. IV, p. 242) stated that in September 1868 remains
of a mastodon were found 2 miles southeast of Fairmount. He described
the locality as having a black soil, from 1 to 2 feet deep, and
underlain by a light-brown tenacious clay, filled with the shells of
_Lymnæa_, _Physa_, _Planorbis_, _Sphærium_, etc. The bones of the
mastodon lay partly in this marly clay, but the tip of one tusk rose to
within 13 inches of the surface. The bones were considerably decayed,
but Bradley thought this had resulted from the previous draining of the
land and the accession of air to the bones. Some fragments of this
skeleton are in the collection of the Chicago Academy of Science. The
locality is very close to the northern edge of the Champaign moraine.
19. _Iroquois and Vermillion Counties._—Under this number must be
recorded 3 mastodons found at as many different places. Hoopeston is in
Vermillion County, but evidently the mastodon credited to this place was
found in Iroquois County.
_Six miles northwest of Hoopeston._—In 1881 (2d Ann. Rep. Dept. Statist.
and Geol. Indiana, p. 18; of complete report, p. 386), John Collett gave
an account of the discovery of a nearly complete skeleton of a mastodon
about 6 miles northwest of Hoopeston. The locality is evidently in the
southwestern corner of township 24 north, range 11 east. Each tusk
formed a full quarter of a circle, was 9 feet long, 22 inches in
circumference at the base, and weighed, while yet wet, 175 pounds. The
lower jaw was well preserved, nearly 3 feet long, and contained a
magnificent set of teeth. The leg-bones, when joined at the knee, made a
length of 5.5 feet. What was supposed to be remains of herbs and grasses
which the animal had eaten were found between the ribs.
The following mollusks are reported as being found in the same clay as
that which contained the bones: _Pisidium abditum?_, _Valvata
tricarinata_, _Valvata striata?_, _Planorbis parvus_. It is stated that
these shells live at present all over the States of Illinois, Indiana,
and Michigan, and indicate that the climate of the mastodon’s day was
greatly like that of the present in that region.
Dr. John M. Clarke (56th Ann. Rep. New York State Museum, published in
1904, p. 926) states that the tusks of this mastodon are now in the
American Museum of Natural History and form a part of a mounted
mastodon. The lower jaw is also in that museum. The writer has seen this
jaw, No. 14345, and there are in it 2 tusks of considerable size, such
as the writer has supposed characterized _Mammut progenium_. In case
this species shall prove to be a natural one it continued from the first
interglacial or even earlier to the close of the Wisconsin. This is the
mastodon to which Blatchley refers (22d Rep. Indiana Geol. Surv., p.
90).
_East Lynn, Vermillion County._—The writer has a note to the effect that
some mastodon remains were found near this place in 1881, but the
authority can not be cited. East Lynn is 7 miles west of Hoopeston.
_Rossville._—Dr. Rufus M. Bagg, jr. (Univ. Ill. Bulletin, vol. VI, No.
17, 1909, p. 49, plate IV, figs. 2, 3) reported the finding of a
mastodon’s tooth near Rossville, on the banks of the North fork of
Vermillion River, about 7 miles south of Hoopeston. The figures indicate
that the tooth is the lower right first molar, 127 mm. long and 85 mm.
wide.
All three of the mastodons mentioned were evidently buried in pond and
swamp deposits which lie on or near the Bloomington moraine of the
Wisconsin drift. They lived, therefore, after the disappearance of the
last glacial ice-sheet and probably long after that disappearance.
20. _Beecher, Will County._—At Hebron, Indiana, the writer has seen
various bones of mastodons which had been unearthed in the region about
Beecher by Mr. Jacob Davis, in dredging large ditches. He described
these bones as amounting to “about two wagonloads.”
Mr. George Langford, of Joliet, Illinois, stated in a letter that it is
reported that over a dozen mastodons have been found on one farm near
Beecher in the last 10 years. Mr. Langford sent also a geological
section (fig. 1) taken along Trim Creek. Besides the mastodon remains
found there, he obtained a large part of an antler of _Cervalces_. The
locality is given as the northwest quarter of the southwest quarter of
section 11, township 33 north, range 14 east, 3 miles north of east of
Beecher.
This locality is on the Valparaiso moraine, the last formed before the
Wisconsin ice withdrew into Lake Michigan. It was, however, probably
long after this that the mastodons lived and died there.
Mr. Langford’s account seems to indicate that, after the deposition of
the Valparaiso moraine and the withdrawal of the ice-sheet, there was
left along what is now Trim Creek a shallow lake, which became gradually
filled by washings from the moraine. This at length became a marsh and
produced peat and other vegetable muck. At one stage the surface appears
to have been occupied by a forest, which later became covered by about 4
feet of sandy soil. Over this is 2 feet of black peat, itself overlain
by probably Recent deposits.
[Illustration:
FIG. 1.—Geological section of Trim Creek. Beecher, Will County,
Illinois.
]
1. Moraine.
2. Wisconsin drift.
3. Alluvium.
4. Black peat.
5. Sandy soil, with bones.
6. Peat, sand, vegetable matter.
7. Same stained brown; with gravel.
Mr. Langford has written that all the mastodon bones were found above
the gravel, some of them 5 or 6 feet below the surface. Antlers of the
elk occurred only above the mastodon bones.
21. _Morris, Grundy County._—In 1870, Frank H. Bradley (Geol. Surv.
Illinois, vol. IV, p. 193) stated that in 1868 the remains of a mastodon
were found at Turner’s “strippings,” about 3 miles east of Morris. These
bones lay under 18 inches of black mucky soil and about 4 feet of
yellowish loam, and rested on about a foot of hard blue clay, which
itself covered the coal. The bones were mostly badly decayed and the
greater part were broken and thrown away by the miners; but some,
including a part of a lower jaw and 3 teeth, were sent to the State
Cabinet at Springfield. The locality was regarded by Bradley as part of
an old river bottom.
In 1871, Worthen referred to the same or another mastodon which had been
found in the vicinity of Morris. He stated that it had been found in
undisturbed drift, 8 feet below the surface. The blue clay on which lay
the mastodon described by Bradley may have been brought down from the
ice which deposited the Valparaiso moraine. The loam and muck were
probably deposits of considerably later date. It is not probable that
the Worthen mastodon was buried in undisturbed drift.
22. _Whitewillow, Kendall County._—At a locality in this county, near
Whitewillow, have been found many mastodon bones and those of various
other animals. The place is 5 miles west by north of Minooka and 15
miles west of Joliet. Collections have been made there by Dr. E. S.
Riggs, of the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, and by Mr.
George Langford, of Joliet. Mr. Langford wrote that his collection was
made in township 35 north, range 8 east, and probably section 27. The
farm belonged to John Bamford. Apparently Dr. Riggs’s collection was
made at the same place. Further details will be found on page 337.
Dr. Riggs reported in Netta C. Anderson’s list, already referred to
several times, that in 1902 at least six skulls and numerous other bones
had been found in a well 10 feet in diameter. Above these were bones of
bison, deer, and elk.
23. _Yorkville, Kendall County._—In the Field Museum of Natural History
is a composite skull of a mastodon, part of which was found somewhere
about Yorkville; but the writer knows nothing more definite.
Yorkville is situated on Fox River, near the northwestern border of the
Marseilles moraine.
24. _Aurora, Kane County._—H. M. Bannister, in 1870 (Geol. Surv.
Illinois, vol. IV, p. 113) wrote as follows: “A portion of the remains
of a mastodon, consisting of the tusks and several teeth, was obtained
in excavating the track for the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad
near the city of Aurora, and are now preserved in the museum of Clark
Seminary at that place.”
These same remains were described by the geologist C. D. Wilbur (Trans.
Ill. Nat. Hist. Soc., vol. I, p. 59, figs. 1 to 3). He stated that both
tusks and seven teeth were found, all well preserved. The tusks were 10
feet long and 10 inches in diameter at the base; they were curved upward
and considerably worn at the ends on the underside. Charles Whittlesey
(Smithson. Contrib. Knowl., vol. XV, art. 3, p. 16) probably referred to
these remains. He stated that they were found in a swamp.
Probably one of these teeth was sent to Dr. J. C. Warren, of Boston, the
author of “The _Mastodon giganteus_ of North America.” It is described
in the second edition of this monograph, on page 76. In the Proceedings
of the Boston Society of Natural History, volume IV, page 376, Warren
described a tooth, probably the same, which had been found 40 miles west
of Chicago, at a depth of 8 feet. He said it was the largest mastodon
tooth then known.
In Netta C. Anderson’s list, page 10, it is reported that in 1875 some
mastodon remains were found about 8 miles southwest of Naperville, which
is in Du Page County. The locality would be not far from the common
meeting-point of Kane, Kendall, Will, and Du Page Counties; also
probably within 8 miles of Aurora. The remains, whatever they were, were
donated to the museum of Jennings Seminary, Aurora.
In Netta C. Anderson’s list it is stated that teeth and a tusk of a
mastodon were found, in 1853, by workmen extending the Burlington
Railroad south of Aurora. They were in a swamp near Fox River, where the
Burlington shops are situated. These remains, probably the same as those
above described, were presented to Jennings Seminary.
25. _Batavia, Kane County._—This town is in Kane County, about 9 miles
north of Aurora. In Netta C. Anderson’s list, on page 13, Dr. E. S.
Riggs, of the Field Museum of Natural History, reported that, somewhere
in this vicinity, in cutting a ditch to drain a marshy lake of about 200
acres, some leg-bones and vertebræ of mastodon were found in a sticky
clay from about 5 to 7 feet from the surface. Dr. Riggs writes that
along the same ditch he picked up a jaw of the existing species of elk
and some bison bones.
_Maple Park, Kane County._—Doctor Rufus M. Bagg recorded in 1909 (Bull.
Univ. Ill., vol. VI, No. 17, p. 50, plate IV) the discovery of a large
part of the skeleton of a mastodon. It was found at a depth of 6 feet.
The exact location was not given.
The whole of Kane County lies between or is covered by the Bloomington
and Marseilles moraines, and the mastodons found there must have lived
after the retirement of the ice which produced those moraines.
26. _Glencoe, Cook County._—In Netta C. Anderson’s list, on page 9,
Professor James G. Needham, of Lake Forest University, reported that a
fragment of a mastodon’s tooth had been dug up while a ditch in glacial
drift was being made.
Glencoe is situated on the eastern till ridge, as described by Leverett
(Monogr. U. S. Geol. Surv., XXXVIII, p. 381), the one nearest the
western shore of Lake Michigan. If the tooth mentioned really occurred
in undisturbed drift, it is possible that it was redeposited from some
earlier interglacial deposit.