ILLINOIS.
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.
6. Sandoval, Marion County.—Before the American Association for the 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.
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.
In 1891, W. K. Higley (Bull. Chicago Acad. Sci., vol. II, pt. 1, p. XV) reported the finding of some bones of a mastodon, about 6 years previously, on the south side of Wicker Park, near Milwaukee Avenue, Evanston. The bones were in a layer of fine sand in which were trunks of oak trees. The depth was 13 feet. The remark was made that the level marked the upper or late limit of the mastodon.
27. See page [105].