l82 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



gravel pits were thoroughly wrecked by steamshovels, so that little 

 could be gained from their inspection. It appears that the skeletons 

 were exposed while the alluvium was being scooped away ; thus most 

 of the material was quite useless for scientific purposes. The four 

 fragmentary skulls, however, tell the story very plainly. They are 

 unmineralized, and patently of modern type ; contrary to the state- 

 ment made in the local newspapers, the sex of those that could be 

 determined was male. Fortunately alluvial soil was inside one skull. 

 The presence also of some gravel indicates a subsoil burial — nothing 

 more. The associated potsherds are Algonkian in type. The mineral- 

 ized tusk, lower jaw, and molar of a mammoth (which I saw) ap- 

 parently came from the same gravel horizon, but from a different 

 locality. The gravel thus is clearly Pleistocene, but the human remains 

 are modern. So again what appeared to be evidence of ancient man 

 in America is overthrown. 



In August I left Iowa and went among the Northern Cheyenne of 

 Montana with the primary object of restoring the list of words and 

 stems, mentioned above, according to Northern Cheyenne phonetics. 

 Incidentally it was determined that Southern and Northern Cheyenne 

 differ in speech rather more than has been supposed. By good fortune 

 I was able to measure a really representative group of Northern 

 Cheyenne. Though the results of these measurements have not yet 

 been worked up in a statistical sense, nevertheless the indications are 

 that the vault of the skull is rather low, thus resembling the skull of 

 Dakota Sioux rather than that of most Algonkins. I also took ad- 

 vantage of the occasion to gather some new ethnological information. 



