146 Minnesota Academy of Science 



found in America, and must be set aside, because it has been 

 found that several skulls of the same or similar type are in the 

 National Museum, supposed, on the best evidence available, 

 to be of modern date. That seems to bring Dr. Hrdlicka up 

 against the current doctrine of European anthropologists. I 

 would be excusable, probably, in leaving him and the Euro- 

 pean anthropologists to settle this difference in their own way, 

 without any attempt to interfere. But I cannot refrain from 

 adding a few words, which may serve to loosen the tight 

 tangle in which they seem to be tied up. 



1. In the early days many specimens were gathered rather 

 loosely, labeled without sufficient exactness as to locality and 

 surroundings, or not labeled at all till after some years, and 

 were given to the representatives of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion for this national collection. It would be well to ascertain 

 how many of the list given by Dr. Hrdlicka have indisputably 

 correct records; for it is quite possible that some of them were 

 derived from the loess, like those of Nebraska, which Hrdlicka 

 insists on referring to the "Gilder mound." 



2. I will call attention to the fact that the mound-builders 

 were of two dynasties. I have distinguished them as the 

 "Ohio" and the "Minnesota" dynasties. I have supposed that 

 they were both post-Wisconsin as to geological date, but I 

 have seen reason, I may say several reasons, to suspect that 

 one of these dynasties was much older than the other, and 

 even pre-Wisconsin in date ; that is, that it preceded the clos- 

 ing part of the Ice age. 



3. I would suggest an inquiry whether these supposedly 

 Paleolithic skulls, found in America, may not be actually of 

 the age of Paleolithic man. They prevail, so far as stated, in 

 the non-glaciated parts of the United States. Skulls of Paleo- 

 lithic date have been discovered in Europe in a tolerable state 

 of preservation. There is therefore nothing unreasonable to 

 expect them in America, had they ever existed in America. 

 The wide area from which this type of skull is now reported 

 points clearly to a people that were spread widely over the 

 country. Is it not more easy for the average intelligence of 

 American anthropologists to allow the verity of what that 

 fact indicates than to confront the colossal task of disputing 



