FOSSIL HUMAN RKMAINS FOUND NEAR LANSING, KANSAS. 459 



the Concaunon bench were afterwards deposited. This probably took 

 place when the river channel" curved sharply in against the bluft's at 

 this point, peruiittino- the cnrrentsto break down and partially remove 

 the superior beds of shale and limestone well within the entrance to 

 the little valle^^ When this active erosion ceased the limestone sur- 

 face was strewn with rocky debris a foot or two deep, and in against 

 the ])lufl' at the southern margin there were heaps of coarse talus mate- 

 rial upon which the two human bodies were cast or in which they were 

 rudely buried; and just here we reach the point of divergence of the 

 two interpretations with respect to the period at which these events 

 occurred. The first view assumes that we are probabh^ dealing with 

 the lowan epoch of the Glacial period. If this is correct, the events 

 following the deposition of the bodies would be about as follows: Dur- 

 ing this period the river, becoming burdened with silt from the reced- 

 ing ice front, buried the bodies and began to till up its channel. Step 

 by step the surface rose until the immediate valley was tilled and ol)lit- 

 erated and the waters flowed out over the highest l)lufl's. depositing 

 everywhere the mantle of silt known to geologists as loess. As the 

 ice receded to the far north deposition gradually ceased in this part of 

 the valley, and the river, step by step, cut its way down again through 

 the vast deposits that tilled its former channel, leaving a succession of 

 loess terraces more or less well delined against the hillsides, and finally, 

 after many fluctuations, reaching its present level, which at extreme 

 high water is from 5 to 10 feet lower than our datum level — the lime- 

 stone floor indicated at e-e^ tig. 2. 



But are we warranted in supposing that the two human bodies 

 became associated with the debris on the limestone floor during this 

 great epoch in glacial history, or are we to adopt the opposing view 

 that at the end of this episode, or long after its close, when the river 

 had descended to nearly its present level, the floods uncovered the 

 limestone surface within the entrance to the little valley, and that at 

 this time the aborigines, the ancestors of our historic tribes, left their 

 dead among the heaps of debris? 



The latter view assumes that the river prolxilfly had little to do, 

 directly, with depositing the materials that Imried the human bodies 

 and now form the Concannon bench; that after clearing the limestone 

 floor the current proba])ly followed its habit of rapid change and 

 shifted for a time to the eastern side of the broad flood-plain, leaving 

 other agencies to control the destinies of the litth^ valley now occu- 

 pied by the Concannon fai-m. Naturally, the deposits of the ])ench 

 have been examined with mimitt^st care with the view of d(^termining 

 the story of their accumulation. If laid down in water tliey should 

 show decided evidence of assoi-tment and bedding; il" tiie result of 

 redistribution of loess and other local materials tiirough surface 

 agencies, the deposits would present little evidence of assortment and 



