16. Bancroft, Shiawassee County.—Dr. A. C. Lane (7th Ann. Rep. Geol. Surv. Michigan, 1905, p. 553) reported that some ribs, tusks, teeth, and many bones of a mastodon had been found near Bancroft, at a depth of 4 feet, in marl, above which were muck, marl, and sand. Lane gives the locality as being on the line between sections 36 and 25, township 6 north, range 5 east, but this would be about 12 miles east of Bancroft. The range is probably 3 east. The locality appears to be on the Fowler moraine.
17. Venice, Shiawassee County.—In the agricultural school at East Lansing is a lower right hindermost molar, catalog No. 3392, which is said to have been found at Venice by Mr. Hiram Johnson. There are also parts of one or two tusks from the same place, probably of mastodon. Venice is just north of the Owosso moraine, and the mastodon must have lived there at a rather late time in the Wisconsin stage. A letter from Mr. Fayette Johnson, of Washington, D. C., son of Mr. Hiram Johnson, informs the writer that he saw the bones taken up about the year 1884. The place was about the center of section 21, township 7 north, range 4 east. This would be apparently on the Owosso moraine.
18. Fenton, Genesee County.—Alexander Winchell (Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. XXXVIII, 1864, p. 224) reported mastodon remains from this place. No details were given. Fenton is located on the Portland moraine, one of those built up by the Saginaw lobe.
19. Davison, Genesee County.—In the museum of the Michigan Agricultural School, at East Lansing, Michigan, is a large left femur, found near Davison, Genesee County. It was presented by Mr. A. B. Cullen, but no more exact information was furnished. A comparison of this femur with those of the mastodon and of a specimen of E. primigenius from Siberia indicates that the bone belonged to the American mastodon. The length is 40.5 inches. Davison is situated on the border of an old lake which lay along the front of the ice which built up St. Johns moraine (Taylor, Monogr. LIII, p. 241). At this stage the earliest of the glacial lakes, Lake Maumee, had not yet come into existence; but it must have been long after this time that the mastodon lived in the region about Davison.
20. Utica, Macomb County.—In 1864, Alexander Winchell (Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. XXXVIII, p. 224) reported mastodon remains from near this town. A mention of this discovery is given in volume XVII, page 425, of the “Collections and Researches made by the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society,” by George H. Cannon. It is here stated that remains had been unearthed on the farm of Hon. P. K. Leech, and that specimens of the jawbone and several teeth were in the cabinet of Hon. W. W. Andrus. A letter to the present writer from Mr. A. F. Leech, son of Mr. P. K. Leech, states that the remains had been found on the east half of the northeast quarter of section 31, township 3 north, range 12 east, in a swale which runs across the land described. These teeth and bones were destroyed in a fire many years ago. According to Leverett and Taylor’s Glacial Map of the Southern Peninsula of Michigan, the locality where these remains were discovered is near the outer border of the glacial Lake Maumee, at a point where there was a delta. This delta is mentioned by Leverett and Taylor (Monogr. LIII, U. S. Geol. Surv., p. 383). It is where Clinton River entered old Lake Maumee. It is evident that the animal did not live before the time of this lake; it probably existed long after this time, when the climate had much moderated.
21. Plymouth, Wayne County.—Alexander Winchell (First Bienn. Rep. State Geologist, 1861, p. 132) stated that a Mr. Shattuck had exhumed nearly an entire set of teeth of a mastodon, with a part of a tusk 7 feet in length. Winchell saw five of the teeth; the other bones appear to have been destroyed. The exact location of this place is not known, but Plymouth is within the border of the glacial Lake Maumee; and the existence of the mastodon was possible only well toward the close of the Wisconsin stage.
22. Wyandotte, Wayne County.—In the collection of the University of Michigan are many bones, including jaws with teeth, of a mastodon found in Monguegon Township, about 6 miles southwest of Wyandotte and about 2 miles northwest of Sibley. The locality more accurately given is the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter of section 12, township 4 south, range 10 east. This was on the farm of Mr. James H. Vreeland. A county ditch was being made to drain what is known as the Big Marsh. As reported to the writer by Mr. R. A. Smith, Assistant State Geologist of Michigan, on a very coarse limestone gravel are 30 inches of blue clay and over this about 30 inches of muck. The bones were mostly in the blue clay; those lying in the muck were much decayed. Some teeth and an atlas are in the possession of Mr. Vreeland.
According to Leverett and Taylor’s map, this mastodon was buried within the borders of glacial Lake Lundy, just outside of that of Lake Rouge, a contemporary of Lake Algonquin. On page 442 of Leverett and Taylor’s monograph it is stated that the altitude of the beach of Rouge Lake is 589 feet. On the map just referred to the 600–foot contour-line runs at a considerable distance west of the locality of the mastodon find. The latter appears, then, to have been somewhere between the altitude of 589 and 600 feet above sea-level, without considering the depth the skeleton may have lain below the surface. The altitude of Lake Erie is 573 feet. It is evident that the lake had attained nearly, if not quite, its present level when this mastodon lived.
Dr. E. C. Case, who superintended the excavation of this specimen, informed the writer that the bones were found 4 feet from the surface.
23. See page [88].