The Pleistocene of North America: and its vertebrated animals from the states east of the Mississippi River and from the Canadian provinces east of longitude 95°Hay, Oliver Perry
Science
The Pleistocene of North America: and its vertebrated animals from the states east of the Mississippi River and from the Canadian provinces east of longitude 95°
Hay, Oliver Perry
Paleontology -- North America; Paleontology -- Pleistocene; Vertebrates, Fossil
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.
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