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.

(Maps [28], [30].)

1. Vanderburg County.—In 1884 (14th Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv. Indiana, pt. 2, p. 37), in a footnote written probably by John Collett, State geologist, it is stated that remains of Castoroides ohioensis had been found in this county. Inasmuch as this county lies outside of the drift region, and as no details as to place and depth were given, we can arrive at no conclusion as to the stage of the Pleistocene in which the possessor of this tooth lived. The reader may consult page 258.

2. Richmond, Wayne County.—About 2 miles east of Richmond, where a farmer was scooping out wet earth for a fish-pond, there was found by Joseph Moore (Amer. Geologist, vol. XII, p. 73) a fragment of an upper incisor of this species. With it were sound and decayed teeth of the mastodon. Most probably this fish-pond was being excavated in low ground where a marsh had existed. Richmond is situated just south of the Bloomington moraine, on an area which is undulating and more or less morainic. The animal must have lived at some time after the culmination of the Wisconsin stage.

3. Greenfield, Hancock County.—In 1893 (Amer. Geologist, vol. XII, p. 73), Joseph Moore mentioned the fact that some remains of Castoroides had been found near Greenfield and that these were in the possession of Dr. M. M. Adams. In 1900 (Proc. Ind. Acad. Sci. for 1899, p. 171, plates I, II), Moore presented figures of the skull and made some brief statements regarding it. At that time the skull had come into the possession of Earlham College. If restored this skull would have had a length of 13 inches. Nothing is known as to the exact place where it was found, but it can not be doubted that the animal lived after the Wisconsin ice had retreated further north.

4. Jamestown, Boone County.—In the State Museum at Indianapolis is a lower jaw of a giant beaver which has all of the molars, but whose incisors are broken off at the border of the bone. This specimen was presented by Mr. A. E. Deatley, of Lizton, Hendricks County, who found it in earth thrown out by a dredging machine, but the exact locality was not stated. Jamestown is situated on Eel River where it crosses the Champaign moraine. The geological age of the animal is therefore Late Wisconsin.

5. Summitville, Madison County.—In the State Museum at Indianapolis is an upper right incisor of the giant beaver in its premaxilla, labeled as presented by Mr. J. F. Cartwright. Nothing more is known of the history of the specimen.

Summitville is surrounded by plains of Wisconsin drift. It is about 12 miles from the place where was found the fine mounted specimen of Elephas primigenius now in the American Museum of Natural History, New York.

6. Union City, Randolph County.—Here was found the nearly complete skeleton of Castoroides ohioensis at Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana. This was secured by Professor Joseph Moore, who described and figured it. It was discovered on the farm of John M. Turner, about 8 miles nearly east of Winchester. Mr. Turner has informed the writer that the farm is a part of section 15, township 17, range 1.

The bones occurred in a layer of fine-grained marly silt from 2 to 3 feet thick, overlain by from 3 to 4 feet of dark loose mold abounding in fragments of shrubby stems and vines in various stages of decay. Under the silt containing the bones were coarser and finer drift gravels which formed the bottom of the ditch. In the silts were found fresh-water gasteropods and bivalve shells. Along the same ditch, within a distance of 30 rods, other fragments were found which were supposed to indicate 9 individuals of Castoroides. As this region is covered by Wisconsin drift, the animal evidently lived after the Wisconsin ice-sheet had retired from the Union City moraine, possibly a long time thereafter.

7. Fairmount, Grant County.—Near Fairmount were found some limb-bones and other parts (but no skull) of the giant beaver. These were obtained not far from where the large specimen of Elephas primigenius was discovered which is mounted in the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The remains of this Castoroides are in the Field Museum of Natural History. No details regarding the find have been published. It was stated that near the bones were parts of trees, as though a dam had been built there; but this interesting matter appears not to have been investigated.

The elephant mentioned above was found on the farm of Dora C. Hitt, in the southeast quarter of section 23, township 23 north, range 8 east.

8. Carroll County.—In 1884 (14th Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv. Indiana, pt. 2, p. 37) the State geologist, John Collett, wrote that Castoroides had been found in this county; but nothing was added to this statement. On the map the number is placed arbitrarily.

9. Logansport, Cass County.—In the U. S. National Museum is a fine skull of Castoroides, without lower jaw, which, according to the newspaper report accompanying it (dated January 30, 1894), was found 2 or 3 miles north of Logansport, by Mr. S. L. McFadin, who sold it to the National Museum. It lay at a depth of 7 feet on a fine sand, above which was a foot of solid gravel, then 3 feet of solid clay, and at the top 3 feet of alluvium. According to Leverett and Taylor’s map of the region (Monogr. U. S. Geol. Surv., vol. LIII, plate VI), this place would be on the moraine which lies north of the Wabash River, the meeting-place of the ice-lobes coming from Lake Michigan, Lake Erie, and Saginaw Bay.

10. Macy, Miami County.—From Mr. C. F. Fite, Denver, Indiana, the writer received a photograph of a tooth of Castoroides, apparently the lower right incisor. This was found in Allen Township. Mr. Fite gives as the exact locality section 23, township 29, range 3 east. This would be not far from Macy. It lies, therefore, on or near the northern border of the great moraine which extends from Delphi, Indiana, to the northeastern corner of the State.

11. Kosciusko County.—As in the case of Cass County, we depend for our knowledge of the discovery of Castoroides in Kosciusko County on the statement made by John Collett, in the place there cited.

12. Grovertown, Starke County.—From Dr. E. S. Riggs, of Field Museum of Natural History, the information has been received that there is at that museum a fine skull, with the right half pf the mandible, of a giant beaver which was found 1.5 miles west of Grovertown, in making an excavation for the abutment of a bridge, 6 feet below the surface in township 34 north, range 1 west. This is within the region of the Pleistocene Lake Kankakee.