In 1871, Worthen referred to the same or another mastodon which had been found in the vicinity of Morris. He stated that it had been found in undisturbed drift, 8 feet below the surface. The blue clay on which lay the mastodon described by Bradley may have been brought down from the ice which deposited the Valparaiso moraine. The loam and muck were probably deposits of considerably later date. It is not probable that the Worthen mastodon was buried in undisturbed drift.
22. Whitewillow, Kendall County.—At a locality in this county, near Whitewillow, have been found many mastodon bones and those of various other animals. The place is 5 miles west by north of Minooka and 15 miles west of Joliet. Collections have been made there by Dr. E. S. Riggs, of the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, and by Mr. George Langford, of Joliet. Mr. Langford wrote that his collection was made in township 35 north, range 8 east, and probably section 27. The farm belonged to John Bamford. Apparently Dr. Riggs’s collection was made at the same place. Further details will be found on page [337].
Dr. Riggs reported in Netta C. Anderson’s list, already referred to several times, that in 1902 at least six skulls and numerous other bones had been found in a well 10 feet in diameter. Above these were bones of bison, deer, and elk.
23. Yorkville, Kendall County.—In the Field Museum of Natural History is a composite skull of a mastodon, part of which was found somewhere about Yorkville; but the writer knows nothing more definite.
Yorkville is situated on Fox River, near the northwestern border of the Marseilles moraine.
24. Aurora, Kane County.—H. M. Bannister, in 1870 (Geol. Surv. Illinois, vol. IV, p. 113) wrote as follows: “A portion of the remains of a mastodon, consisting of the tusks and several teeth, was obtained in excavating the track for the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad near the city of Aurora, and are now preserved in the museum of Clark Seminary at that place.”
These same remains were described by the geologist C. D. Wilbur (Trans. Ill. Nat. Hist. Soc., vol. I, p. 59, figs. 1 to 3). He stated that both tusks and seven teeth were found, all well preserved. The tusks were 10 feet long and 10 inches in diameter at the base; they were curved upward and considerably worn at the ends on the underside. Charles Whittlesey (Smithson. Contrib. Knowl., vol. XV, art. 3, p. 16) probably referred to these remains. He stated that they were found in a swamp.
Probably one of these teeth was sent to Dr. J. C. Warren, of Boston, the author of “The Mastodon giganteus of North America.” It is described in the second edition of this monograph, on page 76. In the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, volume IV, page 376, Warren described a tooth, probably the same, which had been found 40 miles west of Chicago, at a depth of 8 feet. He said it was the largest mastodon tooth then known.
In Netta C. Anderson’s list, page 10, it is reported that in 1875 some mastodon remains were found about 8 miles southwest of Naperville, which is in Du Page County. The locality would be not far from the common meeting-point of Kane, Kendall, Will, and Du Page Counties; also probably within 8 miles of Aurora. The remains, whatever they were, were donated to the museum of Jennings Seminary, Aurora.
In Netta C. Anderson’s list it is stated that teeth and a tusk of a mastodon were found, in 1853, by workmen extending the Burlington Railroad south of Aurora. They were in a swamp near Fox River, where the Burlington shops are situated. These remains, probably the same as those above described, were presented to Jennings Seminary.