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
3. _Kewanee, Henry County._—In the collection of the University of
Illinois, at Champaign, is a fragment of an upper molar of _Elephas
primigenius_, found at Kewanee. It was discovered in 1910, in making an
excavation for the National Tube Company, and was presented to the
university by Mr. J. E. Kemp, at that time engineer in charge of the
work of excavation. This gentleman has furnished very exact information
regarding the discovery of the tooth and the nature of the deposits
passed through.
Mr. Kemp himself saw the tooth taken out and states that it was found at
a depth of about 12 feet. As to the materials passed through, Mr. Kemp
writes:
“After the first 2 feet of soil carrying organic matter we have 5
feet of yellow clay above the ground-water level, and below this
approximately 3 feet of yellow clay which becomes very soft unless
carefully drained before working. This yellow clay then merges into
bluish clay, hard and better packed, going to a depth of
approximately 20 to 21 feet. At this level we meet with that black
soil which is known locally as ‘the chip yard’ and which contains
vegetation and pieces of wood, as you describe. This ‘chip yard’ is
a softer stratum than the overlying blue clay and caused difficulty
in the excavation of a hole approximately 20 feet by 30 feet and 20
feet deep, as the vibration of the reciprocating engines in the
building caused the bottom to rise in little hillocks over night,
and the last 2 feet of excavation had to be dug out and 24 inches of
concrete placed in the bottom, in order to preserve the excavation.”
At Galva, 10 miles southwest of Kewanee, in cuttings along the railroad,
is found a section which illustrates the geological situation at Kewanee
(Monogr. XXXVIII, U. S. Geol. Surv., p. 126, plate X). There is at the
top 4 feet of loess, 1 foot of Sangamon soil, 4 feet of Illinoian drift;
in another section nearby there are 12 feet of loess, 2 feet of Sangamon
soil, and 40 feet of Illinoian drift.
Another section at Galva is described by Leverett (op. cit., p. 130).
The loess is 15 feet thick, beneath which is a mucky soil about 1 foot
in depth, which caps the Illinoian till sheet. In this soil a log about
a foot in diameter and several feet long was found embedded. Alden and
Leighton (Iowa Geol. Surv., vol. XXVI, p. 170) mention this occurrence.
From these examples it becomes evident that the “chip bed” at Kewanee is
a Sangamon soil overlain by loess. The elephant tooth at a depth of 12
feet must have been buried in the blue clay. This, however, is probably
the unweathered part of the loess. If so, the mammoth tooth found at
Kewanee is to be referred to the early Peorian stage.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account