8 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 66 
LS) 
THE INDIANA MASTODON 
Each year the Museum receives reports of many finds of mastodon 
and mammoth remains, especially from different localities in those 
States bordering on the Great Lakes. These * finds,” which come 
for the most part from swamp deposits of the Pleistocene, usually 
consist of a few isolated bones or teeth, but they give evidence ot 
the great abundance of these larger creatures which roamed over 
this continent during the geological age just preceding the present. 
Compared, however, with the great number of remains found, com- 
plete skeletons are rare. This is due in large part to the fact that 
by far the greater number of the finds are made by men of no 
Fic. 41.—Ditch where Indiana mastodon was found. The long iron rod was 
used in probing in the swamp for the remains. Photograph by Gidley. 
experience in collecting and usually little or no knowledge of what 
they are finding. The National Museum is therefore fortunate in 
the recent acquisition of a fine, nearly complete adult male mastodon 
skeleton from a swamp deposit in northwestern Indiana. 
This specimen was donated to the National Museum by Mr. W. D. 
Pattison of Winamac, Indiana, and Captain H. H. Pattison, U. S. 
Army, on whose farm, about 15 miles northwest of Winamac, it 
was found. 
A part of the skull, four limb bones, a few ribs and vertebre, were 
unearthed by a dredge crew while excavating a drainage canal on 
the Pattison farm in the spring of 1914 (see fig. 41). On learning 
of the discovery, Mr. Pattison took immediate steps to preserve these 
bones, but before he could prevent it a few of them were carried 
