17. Edgar County.—In 1870 (Geol. Surv. Illinois, vol. IV, p. 266), Frank H. Bradley, in describing the topography of Edgar County, stated that a nearly perfect skeleton of a mastodon had been found in one of the sloughs of the prairie region which prevails in the western part of the county. It was said that after having been exhibited over that region it was sold to some museum in Philadelphia, but the writer has been unable to obtain further information.
In 1857 (Proc. Amer. Assoc. Adv. Science, vol. X, Nat. Hist., p. 10), J. W. Foster reported that a jaw and three teeth of a mastodon had been found in yellow clay, about 3 feet from the surface, at Bloomfield, in this county. This name has disappeared from the maps and gazetteers.
A little of the southern border of the county is occupied by Illinoian drift, but the greater part is covered by drift of Wisconsin age. The mastodons reported probably lived after the retirement of the last ice of the Glacial period.
18. Fairmount, Vermillion County.—In 1870, Frank H. Bradley (Geol. Surv. Illinois, vol. IV, p. 242) stated that in September 1868 remains of a mastodon were found 2 miles southeast of Fairmount. He described the locality as having a black soil, from 1 to 2 feet deep, and underlain by a light-brown tenacious clay, filled with the shells of Lymnæa, Physa, Planorbis, Sphærium, etc. The bones of the mastodon lay partly in this marly clay, but the tip of one tusk rose to within 13 inches of the surface. The bones were considerably decayed, but Bradley thought this had resulted from the previous draining of the land and the accession of air to the bones. Some fragments of this skeleton are in the collection of the Chicago Academy of Science. The locality is very close to the northern edge of the Champaign moraine.
19. Iroquois and Vermillion Counties.—Under this number must be recorded 3 mastodons found at as many different places. Hoopeston is in Vermillion County, but evidently the mastodon credited to this place was found in Iroquois County.
Six miles northwest of Hoopeston.—In 1881 (2d Ann. Rep. Dept. Statist. and Geol. Indiana, p. 18; of complete report, p. 386), John Collett gave an account of the discovery of a nearly complete skeleton of a mastodon about 6 miles northwest of Hoopeston. The locality is evidently in the southwestern corner of township 24 north, range 11 east. Each tusk formed a full quarter of a circle, was 9 feet long, 22 inches in circumference at the base, and weighed, while yet wet, 175 pounds. The lower jaw was well preserved, nearly 3 feet long, and contained a magnificent set of teeth. The leg-bones, when joined at the knee, made a length of 5.5 feet. What was supposed to be remains of herbs and grasses which the animal had eaten were found between the ribs.
The following mollusks are reported as being found in the same clay as that which contained the bones: Pisidium abditum?, Valvata tricarinata, Valvata striata?, Planorbis parvus. It is stated that these shells live at present all over the States of Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan, and indicate that the climate of the mastodon’s day was greatly like that of the present in that region.
Dr. John M. Clarke (56th Ann. Rep. New York State Museum, published in 1904, p. 926) states that the tusks of this mastodon are now in the American Museum of Natural History and form a part of a mounted mastodon. The lower jaw is also in that museum. The writer has seen this jaw, No. 14345, and there are in it 2 tusks of considerable size, such as the writer has supposed characterized Mammut progenium. In case this species shall prove to be a natural one it continued from the first interglacial or even earlier to the close of the Wisconsin. This is the mastodon to which Blatchley refers (22d Rep. Indiana Geol. Surv., p. 90).
East Lynn, Vermillion County.—The writer has a note to the effect that some mastodon remains were found near this place in 1881, but the authority can not be cited. East Lynn is 7 miles west of Hoopeston.
Rossville.—Dr. Rufus M. Bagg, jr. (Univ. Ill. Bulletin, vol. VI, No. 17, 1909, p. 49, plate IV, figs. 2, 3) reported the finding of a mastodon’s tooth near Rossville, on the banks of the North fork of Vermillion River, about 7 miles south of Hoopeston. The figures indicate that the tooth is the lower right first molar, 127 mm. long and 85 mm. wide.