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
4. _Bluemounds, Dane County._—In 1862 J. D. Whitney, in his “Report on
the Geological Survey of the Upper Mississippi Land Region,” page 132,
mentions having found, at Bluemounds, the first 3 deciduous molars of
the mastodon, exquisitely preserved and not at all discolored. Dr.
Jeffries Wyman, in Whitney’s report, on pages 421, 422, referred to
these milk molars. Whitney in 1866 (Geol. Surv. Illinois, vol. I, p.
162) stated that he had found in a crevice near Bluemounds bones and
teeth of mastodon, peccary, buffalo, and wolf.
5. _Lone Rock, Richland County._—Professor Eliot Blackwelder, of the
Wisconsin State University, informs the writer that there is in their
collection a pair of tusks, supposed to be of a mastodon. They were
found somewhere about Lone Rock in 1901, which is on the northern bank
of the Wisconsin River, in the southeastern corner of Richland County.
6. _Sinsinawa, Grant County._—In his report on the geology of the lead
region, already referred to, J. D. Whitney stated, on his page 133, that
the greatest quantity of bones of the mastodon found in that region
seems to have been near Sinsinawa mound, but he had no exact particulars
of depth or position. Some were preserved at the locality for several
years; others, to the amount of several bushels, were carried off or
destroyed.
7. _Wauzeka, Crawford County._—In the collection of the Public Museum of
Milwaukee is an upper last molar, found at the place named. It is only
slightly worn and nearly white in color. Nothing is known about the
exact place or under what conditions it was found.
8. _Richland Center, Richland County._—Professor George Wagner of the
Wisconsin State University, has informed the writer that there is in
that university an almost complete skeleton of a mastodon, found at the
place named. No particulars are known to the present writer regarding
the history of the specimen.
9. _Menomonie, Dunn County._—Professor S. Weidman, of the Wisconsin
Geological and Natural History Survey, informed the writer that in the
brick clays used at Menominee had been found a part of a leg-bone of a
mastodon. Dr. Weidman was kind enough to send the bone for examination.
It proved to be the distal end of the right humerus, including the
epiphysial part. The interior of the bone had been neatly excavated, as
if by a tool of some kind, the marks of which remained, which proved to
be the jaws of a wolf. He had evidently been after the marrow and had
scraped out all of the part filled by cancellated bone. The explanation
appears to be that the mastodon had in some way broken an arm and had
died. The wolves then proceeded to devour him; they could not have
broken the limb themselves.
The finding of the bone shows that these clays belong to the
Pleistocene. In a sand formation underlying the clays a caribou antler
and bones of the Mackinaw trout, _Cristivomer namaycush_, have been
found. Professor Weidman regards the clays as being of pre-Iowan age.
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