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.