WISCONSIN.
(Map [27].)
1. Bluemounds, Dane County.—In his report, made in 1862, on the geology of the lead region of Wisconsin (Geol. Surv. Wisconsin, vol. I, p. 136), J. D. Whitney recorded the finding of bison bones in a crevice at Bluemounds. From the same crevice were obtained bones and teeth of the mastodon and of a peccary, and bones of a wolf. It was supposed that these remains were found at a depth of about 40 feet and embedded in the red clay commonly found in such crevices. These bones were put into the hands of Jeffries Wyman for identification, who, on page 421, stated that the bison bones were all of the size of the same parts of the existing buffalo and closely resembled them. J. A. Allen (Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. XI, 1876, p. 47), in referring probably to the same bones, speaks of “an extinct bison,” without, however, giving any reasons for his conclusion. It is nevertheless possible that he was correct.
The writer formerly believed that the fossil vertebrates, collected in the fissures in the lead region, had lived after the close of the Wisconsin glacial stage. It seems now more probable that they belong to a pre-Wisconsin time.
2. Oshkosh, Winnebago County.—The writer has received from Dr. S. Weidman, State geologist of Wisconsin, a humerus, found in a marsh near Oshkosh, quite evidently that of Bison bison. Although stained by iron on the outside, the remainder of the bone is white and full of animal matter. The animal may have lived during the Recent period.