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 [11].)

In Area Covered by Illinoian Drift.

1. Otter Creek Township, Vigo County.—In Ward’s Natural History Establishment, Rochester, New York, the writer saw a pair of upper second molars which, in 1885, were found in Otter Creek Township. They were dug up on the farm of W. H. Stewart, while making a ditch in low ground. From information received from Mr. S. D. Humphrey, North Terre Haute, it appears that the locality is not far from the common meeting-point of sections 8, 9, 16, 17 of township 13 north, range 8 west. The complete tooth, the one of the left side, had 22 plates and a front and a rear talon. The length was 248 mm., the width 96 mm. There were 10 plates in a line 100 mm. long. This thinness of the plates is evidence as to the specific identity of the animal.

2. Madison, Jefferson County.—The collection of the Academy of Natural Sciences, at Philadelphia, contains a large lower last molar of the right side, presented by Dr. Hallowell in 1840, and labeled as coming from Madison. The length is 245 mm., and there are 9 plates in 100 mm. This tooth was mentioned by Dr. Leidy in 1869. From the information furnished one can conclude only that Elephas primigenius once lived in southern Indiana.

3. Vevay, Switzerland County.—Professor E. Danglade, of the U. S. Fish Commission, presented the U. S. National Museum a tooth (No. 7913), apparently a second true molar, possibly the first, of E. primigenius. There are 10 plates present. The tooth was found on the shore of Ohio River about 1.5 miles below Vevay, having been washed out of a gravel bank, and is much weathered. No exact conclusions about the age of the tooth can be drawn from the known facts.

In Area Between the Shelbyville and the Bloomington Moraines.

10. Webster, Wayne County.—In the collection of Earlham College are 2 elephant teeth, credited to Jehiel Bond and found on Nolands Fork, near Webster, Wayne County. One is the second molar of the right side of the upper jaw and is much worn; the other is the third upper molar of apparently the same side and is but little worn. These teeth were mentioned by the author in his report on the “Pleistocene Vertebrata of Indiana” (33d Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv. Indiana, p. 750), but he had not then determined to what species they belonged. A renewed study shows that they certainly belong to Elephas primigenius. With these teeth is a tusk which measures 1,800 mm. along the convex curve.

Webster is situated south of the Bloomington moraine, in a tract of country indicated by Leverett as covered by undulating drift, in part morainic.

The greater part of this political township, made up apparently of parts of townships numbered 13 north and ranges 8 and 9 west, is occupied by outwash deposits laid down by the Wabash River and brought from further north during the Wisconsin stage; but at present, at least, it is impossible to assign the animal to any particular division of that stage.

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

4. Windsor, Randolph County.—In the collection at Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana, is a part of a tooth referred to this species. It is either the last milk molar or the first true molar of the right side of the lower jaw. There are present eleven plates and one or more is missing from the rear. The length along the base is 100 mm., the width is 55 mm. There are six plates in a line 50 mm. long. This tooth was found August 20, 1893, in the bed of Stony Creek, near Windsor. According to Leverett’s glacial map of Indiana, this is just south of the Union City moraine near its junction with the Bloomington moraine. By what is known of the habits of this species it may have lived even when the glacial sheet was forming the Union City moraine.

5. Winchester, Randolph County.—In the collection of Earlham College is a lower molar of the right side, apparently the first, labeled as found at Winchester. No details are furnished. Winchester lies on the border of the Union City moraine and all the country about is occupied by Wisconsin drift. It is quite certain, therefore, that this mammoth lived at some time between the formation of the moraine mentioned and the end of the Pleistocene epoch.

6. Fairmount, Grant County.—Here was found, in 1904, the nearly complete skeleton of the mammoth mounted in the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. It has been described and figured by the writer (36th Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv. Indiana, p. 718, figs. 63, 64; Iowa Geol. Surv., vol. XXIII, p. 396, fig. 133). It was found on the farm of Mrs. Dora C. Gift, about 4 miles east of Fairmount. The location is in the southeast quarter of section 23, township 23 north, range 8 east. This information has been furnished by Mr. George Swisher, surveyor of Grant County.

This whole region is mapped by Leverett as being occupied by ground moraine of till plains, and the animal must have lived after the Wisconsin ice cleared away. A tract more or less morainic, an extension of the Union City moraine, is indicated by Leverett on his latest map as passing further south than Fairmount. At the earliest it must have been after the withdrawal of the ice from the Union City moraine that the animal lived. Considering the character of the surrounding country, the nature of the deposit inclosing the skeleton, and the depth at which it was buried, it might be supposed that it was not long after the formation of the Union City moraine that this elephant existed.

9. North Liberty, St. Joseph County.—From Professor A. M. Kirsch, of Notre Dame University, the writer received a photograph of an upper molar of Elephas primigenius found at New Liberty about 1905. This tooth is worn to the base in front and to the fourth plate from the rear. Evidently several plates are gone from the front. Apparently 18 remain. The extreme length is 215 mm. The edges of the plates, as seen on the side of the tooth present a sigmoid curve. The enamel was evidently thin.

In Area North of Kankakee River.

8. Crown Point, Lake County.—Mr. G. W. Stose, of the U. S. Geological Survey, informed the writer that about 1888 he helped in exhuming some bones of an elephant near Crown Point, discovered in the construction of a large ditch in township 34 north, range 8 west. The bones lay in a swamp clay at a depth of 8 to 10 feet. A part of a tusk, one tooth, and one large bone were put in Guenther’s Museum, Chicago. Another tooth (M³) owned by Mr. Stose (No. 8067) was presented to the U. S. National Museum in 1914. It is worn to the base in front; 22 plates remain. The length of the tooth is 285 mm., and the width 100 mm. There are 8 plates in a 100 mm. line. The enamel is thin and little folded.

In Area Between the Wabash and Kankakee Rivers.

7. Near Francisville, Pulaski County.—The writer has received from Mr. W. D. Pattison, of Winamac, Indiana, two photographs of a tooth of an elephant which quite certainly belonged to Elephas primigenius. The locality is in the southwest quarter of the southeast quarter of section 20, township 30 north, range 4 west. According to Leverett’s map, this is in a tract covered by Wisconsin ground moraine and but little above the level of the Kankakee marshes, the 700–foot contour-line being not far away. Just west of the place is a part of the Marseilles moraine. The spot must be very near Metamonong Creek.

11. Rochester, Fulton County.—The American Museum of Natural History, New York, has a well-preserved skull of Elephas primigenius which had been exhumed in the vicinity of Rochester. The exact locality is not known to the writer.

The specimen is supposed to have been a female. The tusks are slender and only 700 mm. long. The hindermost upper molar is present. It is 245 mm. long and 75 mm. wide. There are 10 plates in a 100–mm. line. There appear to be 25 or 26 plates present. The second molar was still in use and about 130 mm. long. This was a large elephant, the measurements falling only slightly below the specimen in that museum which was obtained near Fairmount, Grant County.