36 FOSSIL MASTODON AND MAMMOTH REMAINS. 



but all seem to have taken place at an earlier period in the process 

 of deepening the river valley. For example, one of these depos- 

 its occurs almost on the very brow of the bluffs that border the 

 valley of the Mississippi near Davenport. This example is one of 

 unusual interest, in consequence of the existence there of an ex- 

 tensive bed of ancient peat, which is covered to the depth of sev- 

 eral feet beneath the prairie soil, and the discovery, in the clay 

 aboA^e the peat, of the remains of a mammoth. The exposure was 

 made by the excavation for the Chicago, Kock Island, and Pacific 

 Eailroad company, previous to which there was no appearance at 

 the surface to indicate anything more than the ordinary drift 



deposit." 



(Iowa Geological Survey (White), Vol. I, p. 119.) 



SHELBY COUNTY. 



DeSaDce. — About 1890 H. B. Sooy came into possession of a 

 huge tusk of a mammoth or mastodon, which measured six feet 

 long and seven inches in diameter at the base and three and a half 

 inches at the tip. He kept it about four months, when it began 

 to crumble, and continued to do so, until all but about two feet 

 of the tip was destroyed. The tusk was found at the bottom of a 

 well on the bank of a small stream about thi-ee miles from Defi- 

 ance. Parties made search for the skeleton by boring close to the 

 old well, and came upon something resembling bone. They then 

 attempted to dig down to the skeleton, but as it lay below the 

 bed of the creek, water came into the hole so fast that the search 

 was abandoned, and no attempt has been made since to investi- 

 gate further. 



(Reported by H. B. Sooy) 



STORY COUNTY. 



In 1894, a mammoth was found on the farm of Dr. H. M. 

 Templeton. It was discovered while digging a well which was 

 being sunk in one of the numerous depressions in this part of the 



