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

INDIANA.

(Map [16].)

In Driftless Area.

1. Vanderburg County.—John Collett (7th Ann. Report Indiana Geol. Surv., pp. 245, 246) stated that mammoth remains had been found in Vanderburg County. Nothing more is known about these.

2. Shoals, Martin County.—Mr. M. F. Mathers, of Orleans, Indiana, informed the writer that in 1880, while at Shoals fishing, a part of the upper jaw of an elephant, with two large teeth in it, was found, in White River below the shoals. Mr. Mathers assures the writer that the teeth were of a kind very different from those of a mastodon found on his place. He did not know what became of the specimen.

E. T. Cox (2d Ann. Rep. Indiana Geol. Surv., 1871, p. 103) stated that remains of the mammoth and of the mastodon had been found in Martin County embedded in marsh clay resting on the drift. The only drift in the county is the Illinoian. These animals must have lived after the Illinoian stage; but not necessarily immediately after.

On Area Covered by Illinoian Drift.

3. Vigo County.—John Collett, in 1881 (2d Ann. Rep. Bur. Statist. and Geol., 1880, p. 385), stated that elephant remains had been found in Vigo County.

4. Gosport, Owen County.—In 1859, Professor T. A. Wylie (Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. XXVIII, p. 283) gave an account of the discovery of parts of the skeleton of an elephant in the bank of White River, about a mile southeast of Gosport. Two tusks, four teeth, and some fragmentary parts of the skeleton were exhumed, from a bed of sand, overlain by 8 feet of stiff bluish clay. The sand appeared to rest on bed-rock. One tusk had a length of about 9 feet and a diameter of 8 inches, and this diameter was maintained to near the tip. The teeth were evidently the second and third molars, probably of the upper jaw. The largest molar measured 11 inches on the longest diagonal and had 20 plates. “The distance between the plates and the interval between the pairs is about one-fourth inch.”

This specimen was probably taken to the University of Indiana and destroyed in a fire. It seems most likely that the remains belonged to E. primigenius. They were apparently buried in outwash materials from the Wisconsin ice-sheet.

17. Wailesboro, Bartholomew County.—In 1902 (Proc. Ind. Acad. Sci., 1901, p. 247), J. J. Edwards, a physician, reported a tooth of Elephas primigenius found in a gravel-pit 0.5 mile south of Wailesboro at a depth of 7 feet. The tooth weighed 9 pounds. It was afterwards destroyed in a fire. Although this was quite certainly the tooth of an elephant, the identification of the species may be doubted.

5. Brookville, Franklin County.—Dr. R. Haymond (Amer. Jour. Sci., ser. 1, vol. XLVI, p. 294), under the name Megatherium, described a tooth, evidently of an elephant. In 1869 (1st Ann. Rep. Indiana Geol. Surv., p. 200) Haymond stated that he had the tooth in his possession; but the family does not now (1910) know what became of it. It measured 13 inches in length, 6 inches in height, and 4 inches in thickness. It probably belonged to E. columbi. No statement was made as to the exact place of discovery.

John T. Plummer, in 1843 (Amer. Jour. Sci., ser. 1, vol. XIV, p. 302), described a tusk found in digging a ditch near Brookville, 15 feet from the surface. It was nearly 6 feet long, had a diameter of 4 inches, and was strongly curved. This might have belonged to a mastodon.

On Area Between the Shelbyville and the Bloomington Moraines.

6. Parke, Vermillion, and Putnam Counties.—John Collett, State geologist in 1881 (2d Ann. Rep. Bur. Statist. and Geol., p. 385) made the bare statement that mammoth remains had been found in these counties. The southern portions of Parke and Putnam Counties are occupied by Illinoian drift; the northern portion of each by Wisconsin. Collett’s statement is not of great value for us. Some remains might have been buried on the area covered by the Illinoian drift.

In Area North of the Bloomington Moraine and South of the Wabash River and the Mississinawa Moraine.

7. Montgomery County.—W. H. Thompson, in 1886 (15th Ann. Rep. Indiana Geol. Surv., p. 159), reported the lower jaw of a mammoth found in the bed of Black Creek, on the land of Milton N. Waugh, who was not willing to part with it. Thompson thought that a lake had formerly occupied parts of Sugar Creek and Madison Townships. The jaw contained two teeth; besides this jaw, there were two tusks nearly 11 feet long.

The writer was informed by the late Professor Donaldson Bodine that the locality was on section 12, township 20 north, range 3 west. The teeth and bones were unearthed by a Mr. Parish and afterwards sold by him; but it has been found impossible to trace their history. The locality is on or very near a portion of the Bloomington morainic system, so that it is evident that the animal lived during the latter portion of the Wisconsin stage.

16. Connersville, Fayette County.—M. G. Mock has shown the writer a sketch of an elephant tooth found some years ago 3 miles southwest of Connersville. The tooth was 9 inches long, 7 inches high, and weighed 8 pounds. Whether it belonged to E. primigenius or to E. columbi is not known.

8. Wayne County.—John Collett, as mentioned under No. 6, stated that mammoth remains had been found in this county, but he did not enter into details.

9. Noblesville, Hamilton County.—John Collett, in the report cited in the last paragraph, on page 385, gave a detailed account of the finding of some remains of a mammoth 4 miles southeast of Noblesville, on the farm of John H. Caylor. The locality is given as on the east half of the northeast quarter of section 16, township 18, range 9 west; but evidently the range is 5 east. In the summer of 1880 a large ditch was being made for the drainage of a swamp, situated, according to Collett, in a valley 20 rods wide and extending several miles from southeast to nearly northwest. The higher land on each side is glacial drift and contains gravel and large boulders. The ditch was 4 feet deep, 3 feet of which was in recent peat or bog, and the bottom extended down 1 foot into fine blue clay. In this clay were found two well-preserved teeth of a mammoth, a hip bone, a thigh bone, and the tips of two vertebræ. These bones and teeth were scattered along the line of the ditch a distance of 80 feet and in a width of less than 2 feet. What became of these bones we are not informed. According to Leverett’s map, this region is covered by Wisconsin ground moraine. I am informed by Professor Leverett that the valley mentioned by Collett was probably originally a subglacial drainage channel.

15. Muncie, Delaware County.—M. G. Mock, of Houston, Texas, formerly of Muncie, Indiana, showed the writer a sketch of an elephant tooth, a lower hindermost molar, with considerable parts of the skeleton, found on the farm of S. N. Priddy, July 1, 1895. The tooth was 12 inches long and 5 inches across. This belonged probably to Elephas columbi, but of this there is no certainty.

10. Dora, Wabash County.—Elrod and Benedict, in 1892 (17th Ann. Rep. Indiana Geol. Surv., p. 241), reported two large teeth of a mammoth found on the farm of John H. Peffley, in the east half of the southwest quarter of section 18, township 27, range 8 east. The writers of the report saw one of the teeth and identified it as Elephas primigenius; but probably they did not consider the differences between this species and E. columbi.

In Area North of Wabash River.

11. Jasper County.—John Collett (12th Ann. Rep. Indiana Geol. Surv., p. 73) reported that mammoth remains had been found in Jasper County. Nothing was added.

12. Pleasant Township, Wabash County.—Elrod and Benedict, as noted above, state on their page 240 that some years previously mammoth bones had been discovered while throwing up an embankment for a bridge across Silver Creek. The bones were found under 5 feet of muck. We have no assurance that these bones were not those of a mastodon. It was reported to Elrod and Benedict that some were in Wabash College, at Crawfordsville. On this same creek, near Laketon, were found some mastodon remains, for which see page [98]. This township, in the northwestern corner of Wabash County, lies on the great moraine which runs along the north side of Eel River.

13. St. John’s, Lake County.—Professor W. S. Blatchley, in 1898 (22d Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv. Indiana, p. 90), stated that an almost complete skeleton of a mammoth had been found in a marsh at the headwaters of Deep River, in the north half of section 35, township 35 north, range 9 west. This would be very close to St. John’s and on the Valparaiso moraine.

It is not probable that Professor Blatchley saw this skeleton, and we can not, therefore, be certain that it was not that of a mastodon. If it did belong to one of the elephants it is to be regretted that such rare materials have not been preserved.

14. Allen County.—Professor C. R. Dryer (16th Ann. Rep. Indiana Geol. Surv., p. 129) recorded the finding of a single mammoth tooth in Allen County. Nothing more is known about this.