FOSSIL MASTODON AND MAMMOTH REMAINS. 31 



MUSCATINE COUNTY. 



Wilton In 1874, bones of a mastodon or mammoth were 

 found in the south bank of Mud creek, about half a mile south of 

 Wilton, at a point where the stream, coming from the north, 

 bends abruptly to the west. Measured from the water, the bank 

 at the time rose nearly thirty feet high. The several bones lay at 

 about the same level in the bank. The skeleton had evidently ar- 

 rived entire at the place, but it was dismembered and scattered 

 before it became finally imbedded. The deposits, containing the 

 skeleton, were modified drift, consisting of alternating strata of 

 very fine sand and clay. The fineness of this material, the regular- 

 stratification and absence of organic matter indicated that at the 

 time of the imbedding of the skeleton, the locality was covered 

 with comparatively deep, clear, and still water, "having nothing 

 of the character of a marsh, but rather resembling the bottom of 

 some wide lake or some large, slowly moving river." The topog- 

 raphy of the surrounding country and the nature of the drift itself 

 favored the idea that a lake at one time covered the territory of 

 the West Liberty plain and reached up to Wilton, and that sedi- 

 ments from some inflowing river had aided in filling the lake. 

 "Occasionally larger bodies, carried by some more powerful agen- 

 cy, found their way out to the deeper parts and became covered 

 up by the accumulating sediment." The evidence was conclusive 

 that the sediments containing the skeleton were laid down after 

 the ice had disappeared from the region. In the excavated skele- 

 ton the cranium and the cervical vertebra were missing, but of 

 the vertebrae there were exhumed nine dorsal, two sacral, and one 

 caudal; also thirteen ribs, one segment of the sternum, parts of 

 both innominate bones, one femur, the right tibia, a number of 

 the tarsal, rnetatarsal, and phalangeal bones, one patella, the 

 right scapula, the lower end of the humerus, and some carpal and 

 metacarpal bones. The right scapula was in a particularly per- 

 fect condition. 



Measurements were taken as follows: 



