SKELETAL REMAINS #9 



under the north and south ditch dug with my stepson and found a jumble of 

 what I believe are the skeletal parts of a youth. 



The next operations were made with Mr. Bankey. We took from a 3-foot 

 level on the northeast corner of the intersection of both ditches, or at the north 

 end of the north and south ditch, a badly mashed skull in some score or more 

 of pieces. I believe this is no. x in the collection. The skull is very thin, and 

 when taken out it was hard to tell which way it lay. There were also two 

 femur bones reposing vertically, which led to the belief that the body had been 

 buried squatting. 



I had determined when at work with my stepson and again verified in my 

 own mind when working with Mr. Case that an intrusive burial had taken 

 place. 



I first showed the crania of nos. 3, 4, and 5 to people in the office of the World- 

 Herald, then to Dr. E. C. Henry, demonstrator of anatomy at Creighton Medical 

 College in Omaha, and Doctor Henry wrote a description of them, which we 

 published. I took the three skulls to Lincoln and showed them to Doctor Ward 

 and Professor Barbour. . . . When the featured article in the World- 

 Herahl of October 21 reached my brothers and sisters in New York, they noti 

 fied Prof. Henry Fairchild Osborn, who came at once to Omaha, examined the 

 material and gave me a statement for publication. Skulls nos. 1 and 2 had 

 been added since Doctor Ward and Professor Barbour had seen the collection, 

 and Professor Osborn immediately noted a variation and called on me for an 

 explanation, which was given him as I give it to you. 



A week after my story was figured in the World-Herald of October 21, Joseph s 

 father called me by telephone and told me that his son had a skull similar to 

 the ones figured. I visited his house and saw the similarity to my own crania. 

 His mother told me to take it, that her son was at the university, and that she 

 knew he would be glad to have it go with the others. 



The lad came to see me a month afterwards. lie said he had been looking for 

 Indian turnips in the neighborhood of Long s hill and had come onto the old 

 excavation made by the three men twelve years ago. He said he had, with the 

 aid of his knife and sticks, penetrated into the old loose earth and run onto 

 skull no. G when he had gotten down to a level of his shoulders. He is nearly 

 feet tall. It took him a half day to get it out with a large pocketknife. and 

 he also found a portion of another. He thought it was an Indian skull and 

 took it home. With the skull was a piece of a jaw (lower), and this fitted 

 exactly with the one found by Mr. Bankey. 



I have said little about this skull. Joseph thinks he can get a fortune 

 for it. ... 



With or near the bones discovered by Mr. Gilder were several 

 stone implements, among them two flint blades of ordinary form. 

 There was no trace of pottery. The better-preserved bones were 

 collected and kept about Mr. Gilder s house until the question of 

 possible geological antiquity of the deeper burials arose, when they 

 were transferred to the University of Nebraska, at Lincoln. 



On November 16 Prof. E. H. Barbour, geologist and paleontologist 

 of the University of Nebraska, by arrangement with Mr. Gilder, took 

 charge of the further excavations. As the work progressed he became 

 convinced that the bones of the lower levels that is, those more than 

 4J feet, approximately, from the surface, were contemporaneous with 

 the original (lacustrine) loess deposits; and thenceforth the excava- 



