48 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 33 



In tin* words of Professor Holmes," whose opinion agrees closely with 

 that of the other opponents of the geological antiquity of the find 

 The preferred Interpretation of the phenomena Is that the relic-bearing 

 deposits of the Concannon bench were not laid down In glacial times by tli 

 silt-charged waters of the Missouri, but that they are a remnant of delta-like ac- 

 cumulations formed In comparatively recent times within and about the mouth 

 of the tributary valley by local subaerial agencies, all save the more prot'< t.-.i 

 portions having been removed by late encroachments of the ever-changing river. 



The importance of -the find made it very desirable to consult the 

 testimony of the bones themselves. In October, 1902, the writer 

 therefore visited the locality of the find 6 and by the 'courtesy of Mr. 

 Long and Prof. E. Haworth was enabled to examine all of the 

 bones recovered. A report of the results of this examination and of 

 a subsequent study of the skull at the National Museum was read 

 before the International Congress of Americanists at its New York 

 meeting in the fall of 1902 and was subsequently published.* In 

 order to avoid double reference, the essential portions of the report 

 are herein reprinted with a few minor modifications in the text. 



SOMATOLOGICAL CHARACTERS 



The skeleton is fairly complete, but many of the constituent parts 

 are damaged and many fragments are wanting. 



All the parts of the skeleton show a nearly uniform yellowish- 

 white color and all are of similar consistency. Portions of the bones 

 show adhering soil, which now, in its dry state, is uniformly gray. 

 In addition there are spots at which is a closely adhering, hard, 

 brittle, grayish, apparently calcareous concretion. 6 



The bones are quite hard and not very brittle; they are not suffi- 

 ciently chalky to mark a blackboard. They fully preserve their 

 structure and exhibit no perceptible traces of fossilization. 



The skeletal parts are all entirely normal that is, free from anom- 

 alies or disease with one exception; a few of the articular surface- 

 are surrounded by moderate marginal exostoses, such as occur fre- 

 quently in older individuals or in certain forms of arthritis. 



The skeleton is distinctly that of a male of about fifty-five years 

 of age. The man was of medium stature (about 1.65 m.) and of 

 ordinary strength. The bones of the lower extremities indicate better 

 development than those of the upper, showing relatively greater use 

 of the former. 



" American Anthropologist, n. s., iv, no. 4, 751, 1902. 



* In examining the site where the skeleton was said to have lain, a piece of hone, in 

 all probability a portion of a human phalanx, was found In situ in the wall of the tunnel. 



By this time the skull only was in Mr. Long's keeping, the rest of the bones being In 

 the care of Professor Haworth at the State University, Lawrence, Kansas. Since then the 

 skull has been deposited In the National Museum. 



'American Anthropologist, n. s., v, no. 2, 1903. 



Some of this concretion covers the edges of breaks, as In the humerus and femur, 

 showing these breaks to be ancient, while more adheres to the occipital and parletals 

 within the cranium. 



