4H0 FOSSIL HUMAN REMAITSTS FOUND NEAR LANSING, KANSAS. 



no evidence of systematic stratiti cation. Tliroughont the entire depth 

 of these formations, as exposed in the tmmel and in the trench, there 

 appears to be but one feature that can be construed as giving decided 

 support to the view which favors fluvial origin. A thin seam of clay 

 appears in the west wall of the tunnel, some 3 feet above the lime- 

 stone floor, and extends from the entrance far back toward the south, 

 rising at a low angle. The earlier examinations of this deposit led to 

 the conclusion that the lower part, at least, of the formation had been 

 laid down by the river, but subsequent investigations show that the 

 la3^er is not continuous, that it is not found in the east wall of the tun- 

 nel opposite its appearance on the west side, and that it pinches out 

 quickly to the west, no trace of it having been discovered in the walls 

 of the great trench dug by the Bureau. It is just such a layer of 

 water-laid claj^ as would accumulate in the bed of a sluggish stream 

 running with the trend of the tunnel at this point, or through the 

 presence of a small oblong i)ool of water left during a season of flood 

 before the river finally deserted this level. 



The deposit is composed for the most part of loess-like silt, through 

 which, at all levels, are scattered fragments of limestone and shale, 

 the whole presenting much variety of composition and irregularity of 

 accumulation; hence it is surmised that the history of its deposition 

 may be somewhat as follows: When at a period indefinitely later than 

 the close of the lowan epoch, and possibly much later than even the 

 close of the Glacial period, the river retreated from the west side of 

 the valley, leaving the limestone floor at the entrance to the little 

 valley freshly exposed, the steep slopes of the valley, half a square 

 mile in area, were mantled with loess deposits, and these, with coarser 

 materials from the general surface, were carried down by creep and 

 wash to the gateway of the little valley, where, since active erosion 

 b}' the river had ceased, they accumulated, burying the exposed rock 

 surface and the human remains to a depth of 20 feet or more and 

 spreading out in a fan-shaped delta on the river flood-plain about the 

 mouth of the valley. The narrow entrance to the valley probably 

 favored accunuilation, and the weak intermittent rivulet nuist have 

 been quite incapable of clearing the way and carrying the accumulated 

 material far out over the plain to the river channel. At any rate it 

 seems altogether reasonable to suppose that 20 feet or more in depth 

 of this material could have been deposited within and about the 

 entrance to the little valley. The amount of accumulation would be 

 limited oidy by the length of time that the river channel remained far 

 away to the east and by the supply of easily eroded material. It is 

 readily understood, however, that between the period of the burial of 

 the human bodies and the present time the river may have returned 

 once or several times toward the west bluff, permitting active work in 

 undermining and cutting- down the limestone face. That it did return 



