Charles City intelligencer. [volume] (Charles City, Floyd County, Iowa) 1864-1866, 1865-01-19
Stientift.
I'D From the Dubuque Daily Times
Wonders of Geology. n
SECOND ARTICLE.

/ SECOND ARTICLE. az +
In q crevice that contained lead ore,
near Fairplay, Grant County, Wiscorl-
sin, some years ago, miners working
for ore, found the bones of a mastodon
in the crevice, about twenty feet from
the surface. This crevice was some
ten feet wide, filled with clay, and the
most singular part of this discovery
was that the lead vein, which lay in
vertical form in the clay which filled
the crevice ara formed the matrix of
the ore, had, at the time it was formed
removed the substance of one of it(e
leg bones Of the mastodon, and the
space was filled with lead ore, so that
when the bone was taken mp from the
clay, piece Of lead ore was found ce.
mented through the substance of the
bone, the ore attached too, and extend
ing out each side beyond the surface
of the bone. Here is one Of the rec.
ords. In the chronology or age Of
lead veins What is known to geolo-
gists as the tertiary era, and which be-
longs to comparatively recent geo
logical epoch, the next preceding the
advent of man, is the era in which the
dynasty of the mastodon family comes
in and ends. Also near this place
was found the bones, tusks, and teeth
of elephants Also clay earthworks
on the SUBMITS of ridges, showing an
outline of animals Of the mastodon
family--one of these earthwnrks is
near the mill on the Sinsinawa Creek.
and road leading from Dubuque to Ga
lena. In another crevice about one
mile north of Sinsinawa Mound, and
known as the "Ott range" at the
depth of seventy-five feet miners in
following lead ores found the bones of
an animal about the size of an elk.
the teeth being in perfect state of
preservation. Here, also, the lead ores
were found cemented to the bones, or
chrystalized around the bones. 1t is
evident from these facts, that masto-
dons, elephants, and other large ami
mails, once roamed and browsed around
the hills and valleys near Dubuque,
and that the crevices that now contain
lead ores were at that time open fis-
sures in the limestone, and that these
animals fell in these assures, and
that they were covered with clay, the
assures being filled and in places
from ten to twenty feet of clay, depos-
tied above the surface Of the rock.
Also, that the repletion or filling of
the lead veins is of comparative recent
date II Is evident that these earth
work figures were made by race of
people, prior to and of more intelligence
than the present race of Indians, and
by race of people that lived on this
continent at the close or extinction of
the mastodon family and may appro-
priately be called the "oldest inhabit-
ants" DR.. Locke, when Assistant Ge-
ologist at the time of Owens survey
of this lead region, traced the outlines
of number of these earthwork fig
ures on maps. The writer some fifteen
years ago, discovered one on the bluffs
of the Sinsinawa creek, four miles
east of Sinsinawa Mound, ard publish
ed an account oft in tie Galena Gazette.
The length Of the figure was two hun
dred and fifty feet, and legs, neck and
tail proportioned to this length. The
climate in this region at that time,
must have been tropic, and the growth
of vegetation dense, as a herd of mas
tadons at the present era would find
our present prairie grass very lean
pasture, and evidently Oh this kind OF
diet could not have reached the colos-
sal proportions indicated by their
bones. The most luxuriant vegetation
of the tropics, at present, would bare
ly make /" lunch" for herd of these
quadramana. We have learned the
haunts of these monsters, they have
left their bones, and the people VIII,
first saw them-thcir embossed figures
on the ridges of our creeks must &c
back, in the past ages Of the clays
and hunt place where these animal.
, could have had such pasture tha
they could have eaten their fill, and
like aldermen after dinner, rested from
, their labors. a" '#
In the deep clay beds that overli,
the lead measure around the Sinsinaw;
Mound, at the depth of twenty fee
the miner finds a stratum Of blacl
CLAW that he calls "swampy claw an,
lin this CLAW is found evidence of it
being formed of a deposit of a odens
succulent vegetation that grew i
swampy districts, and would. hay
formed. the natural food of elephant
and mastodons, and we may suppos
that when that level was the surfac
of the country. and what is now tn
lead region, was divided into swamps
with the creeks and rivers filed up :
the high water lines, now seen alon,
the bluffs that the first Of the huma,
family of this region saw the las
members Of the race of the dynast,
of the mastodons.; that in the grea
cycles of time by which the, geoiogis
measures the elevation ~ mounfain,