INDIANA.
Mastodons Found in the Unglaciated Region.
1. Posey County.—On page 341 of Blainville’s “Ostéographie des Mammifères,” volume III, it is stated that Lesueur had shown Blainville drawings of a fine vertebra and a femur, with its epiphyses, of a mastodon which had been found along the Wabash River. His language indicates that this was somewhere below New Harmony. He stated that these bones were in the library at Vincennes, Indiana. In answer to my inquiry about these bones, President Horace Ellis, of Vincennes University, informed me that some bones which appear to be those mentioned are in his university.
These remains were found in digging a well, at a depth of 60 feet. One of the curators of the library at Vincennes, Mr. Badollet, states that with these bones were some skin and hair. We may suppose that there was some mistake about this.
Unfortunately, as in so many other cases, it is now impossible to determine just where these remains were found. New Harmony is situated on the border of the Illinoian drift, and this continues nearly 10 miles farther south. This drift is covered by loess. A well sunk here would, at a depth of 60 feet, be in probably Iowan loess. Nearer the river, in the lowlands, the depth given would probably be in Wisconsin outwash.
2. Dubois County.—Some details regarding the specimen found here are given in the author’s paper on the “Pleistocene of Indiana” (36th Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv. Indiana, p. 702). A part of a mastodon was found long ago near the mouth of Wolf Creek, at the Rock House Ford of White River. This appears to be in Harrison Township (1 north, range 4 west). The valley of White River is here occupied by alluvial terraces older than the Wisconsin drift (Leverett, Monogr. XXXVII, U. S. Geol. Surv., plate VI). There is here too, no doubt, much outwash from the Wisconsin glacier itself.
The writer has received a photograph of a mastodon tooth which Mr. Marshall Roberts, of Jasper, Indiana, found in 1912 in East White River, in the northwest part of Harrison Township. The tooth is 195 mm. long and 87 mm. wide and has four crests and a large talon.
In Samuel L. Mitchill’s “Observations on the Geology of North America,” page 363, it is stated that a part of a mastodon had been found, in July 1817, “near the falls of the east branch” of White River. No exact conclusion can be drawn from the facts known.
3. Hindostan, Martin County.—Mastodon remains (36th Rep. Geol. Surv. Indiana, p. 707) have been found at Hindostan, on the east bank of White River, about 4.5 miles directly southwest of Shoals. A mastodon tooth was found in White River at Shoals (op. cit., p. 709). It appears to be impossible to determine the age of this material.
4. Orange County, west of Orleans.—The writer has given an account (36th Rep. Geol. Surv. Indiana, p. 710) of mastodon remains found here, on the farm of Mr. Marion F. Mathers, apparently near the line between the townships of ranges 1 and 2 west and 3 north, and about 2 miles south of the line between Orange and Lawrence Counties. The remains appear to have been found in a valley and about 4.5 feet below the surface. Being found thus in an unglaciated region, they might have been deposited at any time during the Pleistocene.
5. Sparksville, Jackson County.—Some years ago teeth and ribs of a mastodon were found on the bank of White River, at Sparksville. The valley here is filled with outwash from the Wisconsin drift, but there is possibly some outwash from the Illinoian.
6. Jackson County, 7 miles west of Tampico.—(See 36th Ann. Rep. State Geologist of Indiana, vol. XXXVI, p. 706.) A mastodon tooth was reported found on the bank of Judah Creek, a branch of Mill Creek, in section 9, township 4 north, range 4 east, not far from Muscatatuk River. This is at some distance outside of the border of the Illinoian drift. Along Mill Creek are alluvial deposits, but nearby is Chestnut ridge of probably Wisconsin age (32d Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv. Indiana, p. 192).
7. New Albany, Floyd County.—In the Fifth Annual Report of the Geological Survey of Indiana, page 176, Mr. William W. Borden stated that mastodon remains had been frequently found on the bank of the Ohio River, at New Albany. As too often, there are lacking details as to localities and levels. It is quite probable that there is some outwash at this place from the Illinoian drift, and there is much from the Wisconsin.
Mastodons Found Within Area Covered by Illinoian Drift.
8. Princeton, Gibson County.—In 1910, three teeth of a mastodon were found in this village, at a depth of 6 feet, in a sewer which was being constructed in West Chestnut street. This region is covered by Illinoian drift. According to Leverett’s map (Monogr. LIII, 1914), Princeton is situated on Illinoian ground moraine covered by loess. Dr. E. W. Shaw, of the U. S. Geological Survey, who is familiar with the region in question, informs the writer that these teeth were almost certainly found in Iowan loess, deposited at some time between the Illinoian and the Wisconsin glacial stages.
52. Vincennes, Knox County.—At the State University of Colorado, at Boulder, there is an atlas of a mastodon which was taken there by Professor M. M. Ellis, formerly of Vincennes, who stated that this, with other bones, had been found at Vincennes, associated with a skull of a fossil bison.
9. Knox or Gibson County.—In Blainville’s “Ostéographie des Mammifères,” page 340, it was stated that the lower jaw of a mastodon had been found at some place between Vincennes and New Harmony. The locality would be in either Knox or Gibson County. The valley of the Wabash in all this region is filled with outwash from the Wisconsin glacier, and most probably the animal represented lived during the Wisconsin stage; but our lack of knowledge of the conditions in which the jaw was found forbids any assumption of certainty in our conclusion.
10. Parke County.—In the Forty-first Annual Report of the State Museum of New York it is reported that there was received, about 1888, the tooth of a mastodon, found in this county, at the junction of Raccoon and Little Raccoon Creeks. These creeks unite on section 23 of township 14 north, range 8 west. The political name of the township is Florida. The region is covered by Illinoian drift; hence the tooth is quite certainly more recent than that epoch. The valleys of the creeks named are occupied by outwash from Wisconsin drift, and probably the teeth found lodgment there during the Wisconsin stage.
11. Brookville, Franklin County.—The writer has given an account of the remains of mastodons found near Brookville (36th Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv. Indiana, 1912, p. 704). The information is derived from a report by Dr. Rufus Haymond, made in the First Annual Report, 1869, page 199. Two of these were found 8 or 9 feet below the surface, in the gravel of the upper terrace, along Whitewater River. One was discovered about half a mile below Brookville, the other about 3.5 miles below the village. According to Mr. A. E. Taylor’s account of this region (34th Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv. Indiana), the terrace in which the mastodon bones were buried is 100 feet above the present bed of Whitewater River. As Haymond speaks of skeletons being found at these localities, it is probable that something more than isolated teeth or bones were buried there. If so, the bones were in their original place of interment, and since that interment the terrace was built up higher by about 8 feet. According to Leverett (Monogr. LIII, p. 118), these terraces were made from the outwash of the Wisconsin glacier while it was forming the moraines which cross Wayne and the southern part of Randolph Counties. If this is true, these mastodons lived shortly after the culmination of the Wisconsin stage. This interpretation would imply that mastodons could live in very close proximity to the glacial front. However, not too much importance must be attached to this case, for it is possible that the animals were not correctly identified.
According to Haymond, another skeleton was found about 3.5 miles northeast of Brookville, in a piece of marshy ground which the owner was ditching. This discovery must have been made either on the outer (Hartwell) moraine of the Wisconsin glacier or along East Honnas Creek, where it breaks through the moraine. In either case, the animal must have been buried there after the retirement of the ice from that moraine.
12. Dearborn County.—In 1872 (3d and 4th Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv. Indiana, p. 402), Professor R. B. Warder mentioned briefly that some remains of mastodon had been met with in this county. A part of a large pelvis was found at a salt spring on Tanner’s Creek, below Guilford. This may have belonged to either a mastodon or an elephant. A mastodon’s tooth is said to have been found on high ground on George Randall’s farm, 5 miles west of southwest of Aurora, lying on a stratum of blue clay 8 or 9 feet below the surface. This region is occupied by Illinoian drift and the mastodon probably lived there at some time after the Illinoian stage and before the Wisconsin. However, we can not be certain that the animal was not a mammoth, for no description was given of the tooth and it has almost certainly been destroyed.
According to L. C. Ward’s report on the soils of Dearborn County (32d Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv. Indiana, p. 232), this immediate region is occupied by what he calls limestone upland soil, which has resulted from the decay of Silurian limestones and shales. Nothing is said about Illinoian drift there. Nevertheless, by some means, this proboscidean was buried there during the Pleistocene period.
Warder mentioned other remains of proboscideans reported from Ohio County, adjoining Dearborn on the south, a piece of a tusk found near Patriot, a tusk on Laughery Creek above Hartford, and a tooth at Rising Sun, in the river bank; but these may have belonged to elephants. To an elephant may have belonged the tusks which Warder reported as having been found in the river bottom 5 miles below Vevay, in Switzerland County.
54. Lawrenceburg, Dearborn County.—Mr. M. G. Mock, of Houston, Texas, formerly of Muncie, Indiana, a careful collector of mastodon and elephant teeth, in a letter informed the writer that in August 1887 a large mastodon tooth was found near Lawrenceburg, but the exact locality was not given.
20. Charleston, Clark County.—In the Fifth Annual Report of the Geological Survey of Indiana, 1874, page 176, Mr. William W. Borden reported the discovery of a skeleton of a mastodon on tract 55 of the “Illinois Grant,” about 2 miles southwest of Charleston Landing and about the same distance from the Ohio River. A part of the bones was sent to the old Louisville Museum; the others were, in 1874, in the possession of Mr. J. Coons, one of the finders. Probably the bones have long been lost or destroyed. According to Borden, they were found in a sand-bank. This region is occupied by Illinoian drift.
According to R. W. Ellis’s soil survey of this region (32d Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv. Indiana, p. 245, map), this area is occupied by what is called New Washington clay loam. This is regarded as the residual soil of the disintegrated limestone of the Jeffersonville and Niagara formations. Nothing is said about any glacial drift here, but the sand of the sand-pit mentioned must have been deposited during the Pleistocene.
Mastodons Found Between the Shelbyville and the Bloomington Moraines.
13. Greencastle, Putnam County.—The State collection at Indianapolis contains a last molar of a mastodon found somewhere near Greencastle. It is not known whether it was found on Wisconsin drift or on Illinoian, or in Wisconsin outwash along Eel River.
50. Greensburg, Decatur County.—From Dr. W. D. Matthew, American Museum Natural History, New York City, the writer has received information, accompanied by drawings, that teeth and part of the jaw of a mastodon were found near Greensburg, by Mr. Roscoe Humphrey. The drawings show two teeth, one having a length of 102 mm., the other of 135 mm. Mr. Humphrey states that the jaw and the teeth were found in a branch of Sand Creek, about 4.5 miles southeast of Greensburg. This is evidently on the Shelbyville moraine.
14. Danville, Hendricks County.—The collection of the State Museum at Indianapolis contains a lower second true molar labeled as having been found near Danville. The specimen is credited to Dr. Vinnage. As this region is covered by Wisconsin drift, it is probable that the animal lived after the Wisconsin ice had retired.
15. Attica, Fountain County.—Mr. J. E. Walker, of Attica, Indiana, has informed the writer that about October 1, 1895, a mastodon jaw was found near Newtown, in that county. Mr. Charles B. McKinney, of Newtown, wrote that the jaw was discovered in the bank of Coal Creek, about 4 rods from where the creek crosses into Montgomery County, in the northeast quarter of section 9, township 20 north, range 6 west. The bank rose 3 feet above the bed of the creek and was composed of a black loam; higher ground is found about 20 rods away. This jaw must have been buried originally where it was found or nearby and after the ice which formed the Champaign moraine had withdrawn further north. It may have been long after this withdrawal. The description of the jaw and teeth leaves no doubt as to the correct identification of the animal.
Former State Geologist John Collett, in 1880 (2nd Rep. Bur. Stat. Geol. Indiana, p. 386), stated that in digging a canal a few miles north of Covington a skeleton of a mastodon had been found embedded in wet peat. Collett reported that the bones yet contained their marrow. The identity of the species and the details as to location and depths are not given. Doubtless the age of the animal was Late Wisconsin.
Mastodons Found North of the Bloomington Morainic System and South of the Wabash River and the Mississinawa Moraine.
The whole region is occupied by deposits from the Wisconsin glacial sheet.
16. Bowers, Montgomery County.—Professor Donaldson Bodine of Wabash College, has informed the writer that about 1885 some remains of a mastodon were unearthed on the farm of Milton N. Waugh, near Bowers. The exact locality is said to be in section 12, township 20 north, range 3 west. This must be close to a stream named on the map Potato Creek. This lies north of the Bloomington morainic system or on its northern edge. The epoch of the animal is not earlier than Wisconsin.
According to Jones and Orahood’s soil survey of this county (37th Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv. Indiana, p. 149), the glacial drift is almost everywhere overlain by loess, varying in thickness from a few inches to nearly 3 feet. This loess was deposited after the ice had retired from that region.
17. Indianapolis, Marion County.—In the State Museum at Indianapolis there is a lower right last molar labeled as having been found in Indianapolis, at Pennsylvania and Thirtieth streets, by workmen who were digging a sewer. This was probably in outwash materials brought down by Fall Creek from the northeast during the withdrawal of the Wisconsin ice from the Bloomington moraine to the one which passes through Union City and Muncie, called the Union City moraine.
18. Anderson, Madison County.—In the Indianapolis Star of July 30, 1911, is an account of the finding of jawbones, with teeth, of a mastodon. The account was accompanied by reproductions of photographs, which make the identification certain. The remains were found on the farm of Louis Webb, but the exact location was not indicated. The animal certainly lived after the culmination of the Wisconsin stage.
Leverett (Monogr. U. S. Geol. Surv. LIII, p. 99) states that in parts of central Indiana the Wisconsin drift may be relatively thin, as little as from 15 to 20 feet. In western Tipton and southern Clinton Counties a buried soil about 20 feet below the surface seems to represent the land surface previous to the Wisconsin invasion. In southern Madison County a black mucky soil, carrying pieces of wood large enough to be called logs, underlies the till at from 15 to 40 feet. Such a soil would be the product of the interval between the Illinoian glacial stage and the Wisconsin, probably either Sangamon or Peorian. In such deposits there might be found vertebrate remains, possibly even of horses.
19. Fairmount Township, Grant County.—In 1883, A. J. Phinney, M. D., in describing the geology of Grant County (13th Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv. Indiana, p. 143), reported that some years previously the tooth of a mastodon was found in one of the marshes south of the lake in Fairmount Township, number 23 north, range 8 east. In another part of the report it is stated that the lake was in section 14. It covered at the time of writing about 10 acres, but had formerly covered about 30 acres. The drainage is now north into the Mississinawa River; but, before the Wisconsin ice had withdrawn to where the Mississinawa moraine now is, the drainage was toward the south into White River. At some time after the retirement of the ice from this region it became occupied by mastodons, elephants, giant beavers, and doubtless many other species of animals.
For 20 see page [91].
21. Muncie, Delaware County.—A. J. Phinney, in 1882 (11th Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv. Indiana, p. 131), reported that a mastodon tooth was found 4.5 miles west of Muncie, on the farm of Edward McKinley. No details as to depth or kind of soil were given. The tooth is said to have measured 4 by 5.5 inches, with a depth of 7 inches. Unless the roots were present and large it seems not unlikely that the tooth was that of an elephant. Phinney did not say that he saw the tooth. He reported other supposed mastodon remains which had been found in this county, but there is no assurance that they were correctly identified. Whatever proboscideans they were, they lived after the Wisconsin ice had retreated from that region.
Mr. M. G. Mock, of Houston, Texas, formerly of Muncie, Indiana, has been interested in making collections of fossils and curiosities. He has kept a note-book of his finds and has illustrated it with sketches. He has a lower right last mastodon molar which was found near Muncie. It is 8.5 inches long, and has 4 crests and 5 roots.
He reports having seen a mastodon tooth with 3 crests, which was found June 1887, about 1.75 miles east of Muncie, at the mouth of Hog Creek.
Two teeth, of which Mr. Mock still owns one, were found August 8, 1894, 2.5 miles south of Muncie, in a ditch near Buck Creek, on the farm owned by Oliver McConnell.
53. Royerton, Delaware County.—Mr. M. G. Mock, above referred to, showed the writer a drawing of a mastodon tooth which was found May 24, 1890, near Royerton, 6 miles north of Muncie. With this were two other teeth; one 7 inches long and weighed nearly 4 pounds. These were discovered in excavating tile clay at a depth of about 3.5 feet.
22. Henry County.—In the collection of Princeton University are two lower true molars, apparently the first of each side. The length of each is 95 mm. They are labeled as having come from Henry County, Indiana, but there is nothing to indicate from what part of the county.
23. Losantville, Randolph County.—Losantville is, according to Leverett (Monogr. U. S. Geol. Surv. LIII, plate VI), on the Bloomington moraine of the Wisconsin. As indicated on the map, the drift is covered with silt formed in local ice-border pools. Hence the mastodon in question left his bones in a depression on the top of the Wisconsin drift-sheet, and later they were covered by a deposit of peat.
In Nautilus, volume IV, page 131, Elwood Pleas, of Dunreith, Indiana, gave a list of six species of mollusks found associated with the mastodon. All are yet living.
Dr. A. J. Phinney (Twelfth Ann. Rep. Ind. Geol. Surv., p. 181) stated that mastodon bones had been met in this county, but no details were furnished.
24. Dalton, Wayne County.—In the Earlham College collection there is a lower jaw found in Nettle Creek, near Dalton. It contains the last two molars. The last one has five crests and a talon. The front of the symphysis is rough, but there are no alveoles for tusks. Dalton is in the northwestern corner of the county and on the southern border of the Shelbyville moraine, where this joins the Bloomington moraine.
25. Jacksonburg, Wayne County.—Dr. John T. Plummer (Amer. Jour. Sci., ser. I, vol. XLIV, 1843, p. 302) stated that he had obtained near Jacksonburg, 18 miles west of Richmond, a tooth. It had four cross-ridges and was so well preserved that a dentist attempted to make artificial human teeth from it. According to Leverett’s map, the tooth was probably on the surface of Wisconsin drift. It could not, therefore, have lived until after the Shelbyville moraine had been cleared of ice.
26. Richmond, Wayne County.—In the twelfth volume of the American Geologist, page 73, Professor Joseph Moore, then of Earlham College, stated that some sound teeth and decayed bones of a mastodon had been found 2 miles east of Richmond, in scooping out a fish-pond. A label on a lower last molar states that the remains were found on the Floyd farm. With them were found a fragment of an incisor of Castoroides. According to Leverett (Monogr. LIII, plate VI), the locality would be outside of the Bloomington moraine of the Wisconsin drift.
Mastodons Found Within the Mississinawa Moraine.
27. Penn Township, Jay County.—Mr. David McCaslin (12th Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv. Indiana, p. 169) stated that various remains of mastodon had been found in Jay County. He mentioned in particular fragments found in Penn Township (township 24 north, range 8 east) and which seemed to indicate the presence of an entire skeleton. It is, however, possible that this skeleton was that of an elephant. The Salamonie moraine passes diagonally through this township.
28. Fort Wayne, Allen County.—Richard Lydekker (Foss. Mamm. Brit. Mus., pt. IV, p. 17) stated that there is in the British Museum of Natural History a cast of the left half of the brain of an immature specimen of mastodon which had been found at Fort Wayne. The cast had been sent to that museum by the Chicago Academy of Science.
Professor C. R. Dryer (16th Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv. Indiana, p. 129) reported five skeletons of mastodons found in Allen County. No particulars were given. A note from Professor Dryer to the present writer states that he had been unable to obtain additional information. It is not unlikely that some of these remains belonged to elephants, but doubtless some were those of mastodons. It is to be regretted that so little of value is secured from such discoveries.
29. DeKalb County, 5 miles west of Waterloo.—In the Carnegie Museum at Pittsburgh there is a quite complete skeleton of a mastodon which was found in 1897, in a peat-bog about 5 miles west of Waterloo. Dr. W. J. Holland gave a brief account of this skeleton in 1905 (Ann. Carnegie Mus., vol. III, p. 464). The exact location of the place has not been ascertained by the writer. According to Leverett’s map (Monograph LIII, U. S. Geological Survey) this mastodon was buried on the eastern border of the Salamonie moraine, and it could not have lived there until well along in the latter part of the Wisconsin stage.
55. DeKalb County, 5 miles northeast of Waterloo.—Dr. W. J. Holland (Popular Science, New York, vol. XXXIII, 1899, p. 233) described the finding and disinterment of three mastodons and had a figure of one skeleton. One of the nearly complete skeletons was found resting on “hardpan,” partly embedded in a thin layer of shell marl and muck under the peat, at points not more than 3 feet below the surface.
56. Noble County.—Under this number may be mentioned the following discovery of mastodon remains: In the American Naturalist, volume II, 1868, page 56, was reported a communication made to the Chicago Academy of Science by Dr. Meyers, of Fort Wayne. He announced that he and Dr. Stimpson, of Chicago, had unearthed the skeletons of three mastodons somewhere in Noble County, in a basin-shaped depression in the middle of a corn-field, formerly a willow swamp. One of the animals was a young one. Some of the bones had been found by Mr. Thrush, in digging a ditch through his land.
The skeletons lay at a depth of 4 or 5 feet, in a stratum of peat which overlay blue clay containing lacustrine shells. In the peat were found fragments of boughs and branches of several kinds of wood in a good state of preservation, and some fragments had been gnawed by beavers.
30. Ashley, Steuben County.—The American Museum of Natural History, New York, contains the fine skull of a mastodon, found in Steuben Township not far from Ashley. The finder of the skull, Mr. Walter F. Deller, of Ashley, informed the writer that it was discovered in a swamp which was being drained, about 5 feet from the surface. He states that the bones lay in a marl, itself overlain by muck, and on top of all some soil which had been washed in. So far as can be determined, the animal was buried between the Mississinawa and the Salamonie moraines. With the skull were found other parts of the skeleton, which shows that the remains were in their original place of burial.
Mastodons Found Outside of Mississinawa Moraine and Between Wabash and Kankakee Rivers.
31. Beaver Lake, Newton County.—In 1870 (Geol. Surv. Illinois, vol. IV, p. 229), Frank H. Bradley reported that in draining Beaver Lake, in Newton County, mastodon remains had been found, in company with Boötherium. No details were furnished, and it is not known what was done with the specimens. It is probable that the musk-ox belonged to the species Symbos cavifrons. It occurs over the country much more abundantly than any other musk-ox.
Beaver Lake has disappeared from the maps, but it is shown on the geological map of Indiana, published in the Eighteenth Annual Report of the Geological Survey of Indiana. The lake occupied a part of the present township of McClellan (township 30 north, range 9 west). Doubtless this lake existed ever since the retirement of the ice from that region. The mastodon was probably found in making the ditch from the lake in a northwesterly direction into the Kankakee River.
32. Jasper County.—John Collett, at that time State geologist, reported in 1882 (12th Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv. Indiana, p. 73) that remains of a mastodon had been found in this county, but no particulars were furnished. He stated that remains of this species, as well as those of the mammoth, were buried in deposits of peat. A portion of the county is occupied by the Marseilles morainic system, the remainder by the Kankakee marsh, perhaps largely a lake during the latter part of the Wisconsin stage. On the maps the number 32 is placed arbitrarily.
33. Denham, Pulaski County.—In 1915 the U. S. National Museum secured a large part of the skeleton of a mastodon found about 2 miles west of Denham. The locality is described to the writer by Mr. W. D. Pattison, of Winamac, as being on the half-section line between the southeast quarter of the northwest quarter and the northeast quarter of the southwest quarter of section 9, township 31 north, range 3 west. This would be not far west from the center of the section. The skeleton was thrown out by the shovel of the ditching machine, but most of the bones, including the skull, were obtained in quite good condition. They were found at a depth of about 9 feet, in a marly deposit, itself overlain by sandy materials.
On consulting Leverett’s glacial map of Indiana it is seen that this skeleton was found in a marshy tract, in which Monon River rises. It is represented by Leverett as a ground moraine plain, surrounded by plains covered by sand and displaying sand dunes. It forms a part of what has been called Kankakee Lake, but which, as Leverett says, may have been in late Pleistocene times not greatly unlike what it has been within Recent times. It must have been well along in the afternoon of the Wisconsin stage when this mastodon tempted the insecure footing of these swamps.
This skeleton has been mounted and is now on exhibition at the U. S. National Museum.
34. Rich Grove Township, Pulaski County.—Mr. J. W. Gidley, of the National Museum, and Mr. F. M. Williams, of Winamac, Indiana, in 1915, saw some mastodon bones which had been found here. No details have been reported.
49. Indian Creek Township, Pulaski County.—From Dr. E. S. Riggs, of Field Museum of Natural History, it has been learned that in June 1914, about half of the skeleton of a mastodon was found on the farm of Mr. William Battie, 5 miles west of Oak, Pulaski County. This would be in township 29 north, range 2 west. The skeleton was encountered by ditchers at a depth of 3 feet, in black loam. It was not secured for the Field Museum of Natural History.
35. Royal Center, Cass County.—Mr. Gidley and Mr. Williams, as mentioned under No. 34, saw also some mastodon remains which were from about 2 miles west of Royal Center.
48. Fulton, Fulton County.—The American Museum of Natural History, New York, contains several mastodon bones secured by Mr. Barnum Brown in 1915, but which had been found by Mr. Arthur Fry, in July 1913. These remains were met with in excavating for abutments for a bridge and had been thrown out of a drainage ditch. The bones were disassociated and scattered over a considerable area. They were all in black muck overlying compact quicksand and about 4 feet below the black loam surface soil. From Mr. Fry it is learned that the locality is 2 miles southeast of Fulton. This is in township 29 north, range 2 east, and quite certainly in section 36. Mr. Fry wrote that in digging up these bones logs were found that had been gnawed by beavers.
Dr. W. D. Matthew informs the writer that on cleaning up the materials there proved to be present at least four individuals. One was represented by a very complete skull with portions of the tusks. There was another skull; also two lower jaws which appeared not to belong to either of the skulls. From the shortness and the diameter of the tusks it is believed that all the individuals were females. Besides the skulls there were many bones belonging to the trunk and the limbs.
36. Macy, Miami County.—Near this place was found the fine skeleton of a mastodon which is mounted and on exhibition in the Public Museum at Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A figure of this has been published by the writer (36th Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv. Indiana, p. 659).
This skeleton was found, according to Mr. H. L. Ward, director of the museum mentioned, in 1907, in the northwest quarter of section 29, township 29, range 4 east, between Macy and Deedsville. This locality is on the great moraine which lies north of Eel River and was produced by the ice fronts of the Michigan, the Saginaw, and the Lake Erie lobes. According to a sketch and some notes furnished to Mr. Ward by Mr. C. F. Fite, who secured the skeleton, it was lying at the lower end of an 8–shaped area of low muck land surrounded by rather high sandy land. The skeleton was buried at a depth of 4 or 5 feet, and the surface was miry and covered with water. Mr. Fite concluded from the position of the bones that the animal had become mired. He says in a letter to the present writer that the contents of the stomach had been preserved, but on exposure to the air became powdery like ashes.
Mr. Fite writes that he took up portions of another mastodon in the southwest quarter of section 26, township 29 north, range 5 east (Perry Township), and that he has the lower jaw and teeth. This animal was found in an old pond which had a growth of buttonwood. The bones were in a blue clay, itself overlain by a rich black soil.
Still another mastodon is reported by Mr. Fite from this region. This was found in the fall of 1915, in the northwest quarter of section 12, township 29 north, range 3 east. The remains were found at a depth of 4 feet and were in a pretty fair state of preservation, except the skull. The animal had been a large one.
37. Peru, Miami County.—In the collection of Yale University is a lower left last molar, No. 11689, labeled as having come from Peru, but there is no other information. Peru is on the Wabash River, a few miles south of Denver.
51. Jackson Township, Miami County.—Mr. Fite reports having found another mastodon in the southeast quarter of section 11, Jackson Township, Miami County (T. 25 N., R. 5 E.). This would be not far from Pipe Creek, between Somerset and Amboy, and some miles outside of the Mississinawa moraine. The writer has seen these bones, mostly vertebræ, and agrees with the identification.
38. Laketon, Wabash County.—Elrod and Benedict state (17th Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv. Indiana, p. 240) that in 1872 a nearly complete skeleton of a mastodon was found about 2 miles west of this place, in digging a ditch at the roadside. The exact location is in section 8, township 29 north, range 6 east, near the bank of Silver Creek. The political name of the township is Pleasant. This would be on the southern border of the great moraine already mentioned as running northeastward and southwestward, north of Eel River. After some litigation the skeleton was put on exhibition at Fort Wayne.
In throwing up an embankment for a bridge across Silver Creek, workmen found in the same township, as reported by Elrod and Benedict, bones of Elephas primigenius. They were under 5 feet of muck.
39. North Manchester, Wabash County.—Elrod and Benedict, as cited above, reported that a jawbone with two teeth in it had been found on the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter of section 1, township 29, range 7 east. This is about 3 miles east of North Manchester. The description given of these teeth shows that the jaw was that of a mastodon. It was found beneath 2.5 feet of solid blue clay. According to Leverett’s map, the locality is not far west of the outer border of the Mississinawa moraine.
40. Lagrange, Lagrange County.—Professor Donaldson Bodine, now deceased, formerly of Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Indiana, informed the writer that there are in Wabash College some teeth and other parts of a mastodon, which were found in 1910 in some dredging operations near Lagrange.
H. Pohlig (Bull. Soc. Belge Géol., etc., vol. XXVI, 1912, p. 187) described a lower jaw, found somewhere about Lagrange, which he referred to Tetracaulodon ohioticum. It contained a small tusk 230 mm. long and 40 mm. in diameter. There was present also an alveolus for the other tusk. He accepts the genus Tetracaulodon for mastodons “a quatre défenses permanentes sans émail représenté par le Mastodon ohioticum.” Individuals without lower tusks are regarded by him as females.
In Ward’s Natural Science Establishment, Rochester, New York, there is, or was, a lower jaw of a mastodon from Lagrange County.
The writer has received a photograph showing the right fore-leg, two ribs, two tusks, and a lower jaw of a mastodon found in 1884, in a swamp, 4 miles northwest of Lagrange. The remains were embedded in a clayey marl deposit, at a depth of from 4 to 10 feet. They are said to have been exhumed by Dr. H. M. Betts. The hindermost lower molar shows five crests and a heel. On the right side is a small lower tusk.
Lagrange is situated at the junction of moraines formed by the Saginaw and the Huron-Erie lobes of the Wisconsin glacier. From this the Lagrange moraine runs off northwestward (Leverett, Monogr. U. S. Geol. Surv., LIII, p. 143). Parts of the county are occupied by till plains and others by sand and gravel plains and channels of glacial drainage. At the time these mastodons lived in Steuben and Lagrange Counties, the Wisconsin ice must have retired quite beyond the limits of the State.
Mastodons Found North of Kankakee River.
41. Lowell, Lake County.—Mr. M. W. Ponto, Lowell, Indiana, has sent to the U. S. National Museum a photograph of a lower right hinder molar (apparently not yet having come into use) of a mastodon. This was found at a depth of 2 feet 9 inches in a trench for a tile drain. The locality is in the southwest quarter of the northeast quarter of section 36, township 33 north, range 9 west. This is on the southern border of what Leverett (Monogr. LIII, p. 175) regards as possibly the westward continuation of the Kalamazoo morainic system of the Lake Michigan glacial lobe.
42 to 44. Porter County.—In 1898 (22d Rep. Geol. Surv. Ind.), Professor W. S. Blatchley reported mastodons from various localities in this county; he probably did not see these remains, and the identifications must be regarded as somewhat doubtful. Nevertheless it is more probable that the bones and teeth belonged to the mastodon than to any of the elephants. The latter, however, have been found in this same county. It is rather remarkable that so little definite knowledge has been preserved regarding the proboscideans found in this corner of Indiana.
42. Hebron, Porter County.—One of the localities just mentioned is in section 25, township 33 north, range 7 west, about 3 miles southeast of Hebron. No other information has been obtained about this specimen. Other remains are said to have been found in a marsh, by the side of Cobb’s Creek, just east of Hebron.
43. Kouts, Porter County.—Another find of mastodon remains, as reported by Professor Blatchley, was near Sandyhook, northwest of Kouts. Mr. C. H. Wolbrandt, of Kouts, has informed the writer that a tooth, probably that referred to by Professor Blatchley, was found some years ago in a ditch being made in the Sandyhook marsh. The tooth was found in a mucky soil at a depth of about 2 feet.
The remains which were found east of Hebron and the tooth found near Kouts were buried near the northern border of the Kankakee marsh, which probably was, since the passing of the Wisconsin ice, no less a marsh than within historical times, and perhaps during some of the time a lake.
44. Valparaiso, Porter County.—Professor Blatchley, as quoted above, reported that some remains of a mastodon were found about 2 miles southwest of Valparaiso. The locality is in the southwest quarter of section 27, township 35 north, range 6 west. This would be on the Valparaiso moraine.
45. Valparaiso, Porter County.—The writer has learned from Mr. Jacob Davis, of Hebron, that in dredging at a point about 5 miles southeast of Valparaiso he met with a skeleton of a mastodon and secured a large number of bones at a depth of 8 feet; but some of them were carried off by curiosity hunters. It is depressing to think that such remains should be preserved for thousands of years only to be put to such trivial uses. This locality would be in the Kankakee marshes.
46. Olive Township, St. Joseph County.—In the museum at Notre Dame University are considerable remains of a mastodon, found about 1902 in Olive Township, about 12 miles west or southwest of Notre Dame. Professor Kirsch has sent a photograph of a tooth of Elephas primigenius which was found in Olive Township. Apparently the mastodon and the elephant were living together late in the Wisconsin stage.
47. Notre Dame, St. Joseph County.—From Rev. A. M. Kirsch the writer learns that remains of two mastodons have been found in the region about Notre Dame, within a few feet of the surface. All these localities are within the area of Kankakee marsh. These specimens are now in the fine collection of that university.
For 48, 49 see page [97]; for 50 see page [92]; for 51 see page [98]; for 52 see page [90]; for 53 see page [94]; for 54 see page [91]; for 55 and 56 see page [95].