APPENDIX. 



SOME ANIMALS OF THE PAST. 



While it is not my intention to include fossil species in the present 

 work, it seems desirable to refer briefly to some of them which are known 

 to have inhabited this region in past ages, especially as, in the case 

 of the Proboscidians (huge elephant-like beasts), the teeth and bones, 

 which are found from time to time within our limits, are of such great 

 size as to excite curiosity as to their origin. It is hardly necessary to 

 state, however, that my remarks are here designed merely as an intro- 

 duction to the subject. 



During what is known as the Pleistocene Epoch, a period of time of 

 vast antiquity although comparatively recent from the standpoint of 

 the geologist, enormous numbers of strange mammals existed in North 

 America. Elephants and Mastodons were very numerous, as well 

 as Giant Sloths (Megalonyx), Camels, Llamas, Bison, peculiar Horses, 

 Cats as large as a modern Tiger, Sabre-tooths (members of the Cat 

 family having enormously developed canines), a huge Beaver-like 

 animal (Castor oides) as large as a Bear, and a host of others large and 

 small. By no means all of these animals are known to have inhabited 

 this region, but many of them undoubtedly did, together with other 

 strange creatures of which we know nothing. Bones of Mastodons 

 and Mammoths, however, have frequently been found in Illinois and 

 Wisconsin. Those of a Mammoth were discovered while excavating 

 a sewer in the city of Milwaukee; and Mastodon remains have been 

 found in many places, including at least two localities (Evanston and 

 Glencoe) in Cook Co., Illinois. In a carefully prepared paper Miss 

 Netta C. Anderson records the finding of remains of these huge Probos- 

 cidians in 26 counties in Illinois.* It is stated that a tusk of a Masto- 

 don dug up east of IlliopoHs, Sangamon County, measured 9 feet in 

 length and about 2 feet in circumference at the larger end ; and a molar 

 tooth found in Calhoun County is claimed to have weighed nearly 18 

 pounds. These animals did not differ greatly in size from Elephants of 

 the present day. 



During the past century a number of bodies of Mammoths have been 

 found in Siberia in a frozen state embedded in ice or soil where they 



*A preliminary List of fossil Mastodon and Mammoth Remains in Illinois 

 and Iowa. Augustana Library Pub., Rock Island, 111., No. 5, 1905, pp. 1-43. 



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