The Pleistocene of North America / and its vertebrated animals from the states east of the Mississippi River and from the Canadian provinces east of longitude 95°

by Oliver Perry Hay

ILLINOIS.

(Map [27].)

1. Sullivan, Moultrie County.—In 1875 (Geol. Surv. Illinois, vol. VI, p. 186), the geologist George C. Broadhead reported that he had found the skull of a bison on the west bank of Kaskaskia River, about 3 miles southeast of Sullivan, on the land of John Purvis. The locality appears, therefore, to have been somewhere near the south half of the eastern line of township 13 north, range 5 east. The summit of the bluff here is described as rising about 25 feet above the stream. At the height of about 8 feet was a bench approximately 10 feet wide, and the skull was found on this bench, “a few feet from the top.” The surrounding clay was described as being a rich black loam.

Broadhead stated that the skull measured 12 inches across the forehead above the eyes and the same between the roots of the horns. The latter were short, thick, and slightly curved. In the Transactions of the St. Louis Academy of Science, volume III, page XXIII, practically the same account is given of the discovery. Here Broadhead expressed the idea that the skull belonged to Bison latifrons, and said that the horns were short, thick, and curved upwards and forwards. It is not known where the skull now is. To the writer it appears most probable that the skull was that of Bison bison. There is nothing in the description to indicate any of the other known species. As to the age of the deposits, the presumption is reasonable that they belong to the Late Wisconsin or Recent, for the locality is north of the Shelbyville moraine. It is possible that the bench belongs to the Illinoian; but the nature of the material, “a rich black loam,” seems to show that the bench is an alluvial deposit laid down since Wisconsin times.

2. Homer, Champaign County.—In the collection at the State University of Illinois, at Champaign, are the horn-cores and the rear of the skull of Bison bison, reported to have been thrown out of a ditch near Homer. The writer is informed by Professor R. M. Bagg, of Appleton, Wisconsin, that the specimen was found in excavating a ditch, at a depth of 4 feet, according to the report made to him. Homer is situated on a part of the Champaign moraine and the bison in question must be not older than Late Wisconsin. If it was really found at a depth of 4 feet it would seem to date well back in the Recent, if not into the Pleistocene.

3. Niantic, Macon County.—Professor A. H. Worthen reported (Geol. Surv. Illinois, vol. V, p. 308) the presence of bones of the buffalo in an old filled-up marsh near Niantic. The situation is more particularly described on page [102]. With the bison bones were found those of the mastodon, the elk, and the Virginia deer. The bones of these animals are said to have been found under 4 feet of black muck, partly embedded in a light-gray quicksand filled with shells of Planorbis, Cyclas, and Physa.

Inasmuch as Niantic is situated near the border of the Shelbyville moraine, all these remains probably belong to Late Wisconsin times. It would be useful to know whether the bones of the buffalo, the elk, and the deer were found above those of the mastodons or mingled with them.

4. East of Whitewillow, Kendall County.—In township 35 north, range 8 east, probably in section 27, on land owned by John Bamford, in clearing out a well in a bog, have been found the bones of mastodons and other species of vertebrates. For a description of the locality and the species found there see page [337]. Mr. George Langford, of Joliet, has reported the occurrence of bones of the existing bison there and has sent to the writer a maxilla which contained finely preserved teeth.

Unfortunately, no thorough and systematic examination of the place has yet been made. All of the species and the deposit belong to the Late Wisconsin, that part of it following the withdrawal of the ice. Mr. George Langford informed the author that he found the bison and deer bones mixed up more or less with the mastodon bones. At a depth of about 4 to 5 feet the owner of the place began to strike bones of the bison, which appeared very fresh, retaining considerable animal matter. From about 6 feet down to gravel, about 13 feet, mastodon and other bones were literally packed together.

5. Batavia, Kane County.—Dr. E. S. Riggs, of the Department of Palæontology, Field Museum of Natural History, wrote to the author that he had picked up some bison bones along a ditch in which mastodon bones had been found; but the depth at which they had been met with could not be determined. At the same time bones of the elk were found. Undoubtedly the mastodon remains belong to Late Wisconsin times; and it is probable that the bison and elk remains are to be referred to the same.

6. Galena, Jo Daviess County.—In the collection of the Academy of Natural Science of Philadelphia is a lower hindermost molar collected in a lead crevice somewhere near Galena. It was presented to the Academy by Mr. Henry Green, of Elizabeth, a town near Galena. This, with a metacarpal bone of Megalonyx jeffersonii, had been found at a depth of 130 feet from the surface. It was described and figured by Leidy (Contributions to Extinct Vert. Fauna, etc., 1873, p. 255, plate XXXVII, fig. 4). Leidy thought that it might have belonged to Bison bison, but not improbably to B. latifrons. J. A. Allen (The American Bisons, etc., p. 13) concluded that it belonged undoubtedly to the existing American species. The structure of the tooth will apparently not decide this matter. It is probable that most of the animals found in those lead crevices belong to pre-Wisconsin times; and the tooth in question may belong to an extinct species. A list of the species found in the lead region of Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin is to be found on page [343].

7. Mitchell, Madison County.—In “Records of Ancient Races in the Mississippi Valley” (1887), William McAdams, of Alton, Illinois, stated that in a large mound, square in shape, 300 feet on each side and 30 feet high, through which the railroads pass in the American bottom, at Mitchell, had been found, in contact with a number of copper implements and ornaments, a number of teeth of the buffalo. These McAdams had in his possession. While these teeth can not be regarded at all as belonging to Pleistocene times, the fact is of interest in connection with McAdams’s statement that in all his explorations during a period of more than 30 years, in no other case had he been able to find any evidences of the buffalo associated with the remains of the ancient people of this country. In this connection may be considered Shaler’s views on the modern coming of the buffalo east of the Mississippi River. On the other hand, account must be taken of the finding of a skull of a buffalo deep in lake deposits at Syracuse, New York.