﻿NO. I SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I925 23 



Stone when translated into terms of years, if that were possible, 

 would be so stupendous as to be almost beyond human compre- 

 hension. 



This unique exhibit gives a very definite impression of the great 

 antiquity of the animal life that made these tracks, and it is hoped 

 that as an example it will stimulate the preparation and preservation 

 of other natural phenomena in our government controlled parks, 

 monuments, and reservations. 



INVESTIGATION OF GLACIAL DEPOSITS NEAR DES MOINES, 



IOWA 



In April, 1925, Dr. James W. Gidley, assistant curator, division of 

 fossil vertebrates. U. S. National Museum, was detailed under the 

 auspices of the Bureau of American Ethnology to investigate an 

 alleged discovery of artifacts at Ad'el, Iowa. At Des Moines, 

 Dr. Gidley was joined by Dr. James H. Lees, assistant state geologist 

 of Iowa, who aided in the investigation at Adel. 



After a study of the locality, the general conclusion reached by 

 Dr. Lees and Dr. Gidley was that although the artifacts (if such 

 they are) were found at a level of 24 feet below the original 

 surface and much below the level of Wisconsin (Upper Pleisto- 

 cene) drift deposits abundantly exposed at this locality, the beds in 

 which they were originally deposited are post-Wisconsin in age and 

 represent a more recently filled stream channel formed perhaps 

 by the abundant glacial waters coming from the last retreating 

 dacial ice sheet. As the artifacts were found in a bed of coarse 

 sand and gravel near the bottom of this ancient stream-channel 

 fill, however, the time of their burial must have been several thou- 

 sand years ago. 



INVESTIGATION OF EVIDENCES OF EARLY MAN AT 

 MELBOURNE AND VERO, FLORIDA 



The discovery at Vero, Florida, a few years ago of human remains 

 associated with those of an extinct fauna aroused considerable in- 

 terest at the time, and since the first publication of the occurrence 

 by Dr. E. H. Sellards in 1916, there has been much discussion as 

 to the age of these remains and the manner of their occurrence. 

 Several prominent men of science have expressed widely divergent 

 opinions both as to the age of the deposit in which the human bones 

 were found and as to their normal association with the extinct 



