134 Minnesota Academy of Science 



2. The fissure, or ravine, in which it was found was 

 formed by surface erosion since the earthquake of 1811-12, 

 hence within a period of thirty-four years. If Indian burials 

 in that time had been undermined by the little stream, that 

 fact would have been observed, and it is probable that other 

 remains of the Indians would have been found ; such a fact 

 would be likely to have had its influence on Dr. Dickeson 

 who obtained and preserved the collection, and who consid- 

 ered it wholly as of the same date and origin. 



3. Lyell himself in later discussion made allowance for 

 the idea that the human bone may have been of the same date 

 as those of the Mastodon and the Equus, and deduced 100,000 

 years for its possible age. 



The Lansing Man. 



Whether this bone belonged to the fauna of the Equus 

 beds, or to a later date, may be left uncertain. There are 

 some other discoveries to which we must give attention. Ac- 

 cording to Udden, the Megalonyx beds of the Kansas valley 

 are "the last general deposits of the plains" of that region. At 

 Lansing, in northeastern Kansas, were discovered some human 

 bones in 1902, which lay below all the loess and in the geest 

 formed by the decay of the Carboniferous limestone and 

 shales. This discovery and its geologic relation to the loess 

 were fully described by the present writer in the American 

 Geologist (Volumes XXX and XXXI, 1902 and 1903). Accord- 

 ing to Professor Williston, these bones were in the Equus 

 beds, although at the time of discovery and also later, during 

 the discussion that followed, they were not assigned generally 

 to the age of the Equus beds. If Williston's opinion is cor- 

 rect, it appears that the Equus beds extend from McPherson, 

 Kansas, at least interruptedly under the soil of Kansas to the 

 Missouri river; and this brings up the question as to how far 

 northward from the Gulf of Mexico, and eastward from the 

 latest Tertiary lakes of the interior of the continent, the Plio- 

 cene, in the latest phase of its sedimentation, may extend. 



There is a terrace along the Kansas river, made up (so far 

 as seen) of red clay, visible eastward as far as to where the 

 region was glaciated by the Kansan glacial epoch, which was 



