The Midland Naturalist 
PUBLISHED BI-MONTHLY BY THE UNIVERSITY 
OF NOTRE DAME, NOTRE DAME, INDIANA. 
Vol. I. OCTOBER, 1909. No. 4.* 
Some Remains of a Past Fauna. 
WALTER L. Hann, Pu. D. 
During the summer of 1909, students in the Biological Station 
at Winona L;ake, Indiana, discovered the remains of two species of 
the deer family. Both specimens were found on the grounds of the 
Winona Assembly and both are deposited in the museum of Indiana 
University. 
One of them is a portion of a lower jaw of the Virginia deer 
(Odocoileus virginiamus). It was found on the gravelly bottom of 
the south bathing beach and was not covered by silt or debris. 
The mandible was broken squarely just behind the symphysis and 
also behind the molars as though by a blow from a dull instrument 
while still attached to the cranium by flesh and ligaments. Deer were 
abundant in this region until the early fifties and were not exter. 
minated until twenty years later; so that the occurrence of this 
bone in a good state of preservation is not surprising. 
The other specimen is of more interest. It is a portion of an 
antler of the wapiti or elk (Cervus canadensis). Although elk must 
have been fairly numerous in Indiana when the region was first 
settled, they had become nearly extinct by the time the state was 
admitted to the Union. ‘Their remains are by no means common 
and there are but few records of the actual occurrence of the species 
in the state. 
The antler mentioned above, was found in the bed of Cherry 
Creek about one-eighth of a mile from its mouth. At this point the 
creek has cut a narrow channel, about six feet deep, through marl 
and loam. The antler was probably exposed by the erosive action 
of the stream and perhaps uncovered by the breaking down of the 
bank. Its age is therefore problematical but it apparently belongs 
to a recent rather than a prehistoric species. 
O October 15, 1909.—Pages 81 to 104. 
