268 



DISCOVERY 



Missouri, a skull was found at approximately g feet 

 below the level of the siu'face. Attention was not 

 called to this find until 1906, when Mr. Gilder of Omaha, 

 in exploring the mound, foimd a number of crania 

 and other bones situated at different levels. Of these, 

 some were found beneath baked clav, upon which at 

 some time a fire had been built. The greatest depth 

 at which any human bone was found was iii feet 

 below the surface. It would appear that a lo\ver 

 stratum of skeletons had been placed in the mound 

 feet inward, and earth had been piled on top and 

 burnt hard. At a higher level, but some 5 feet distant, 

 was an upper layer of skeletons which, with three 

 exceptions, had been disarticulated and the bones 

 more or less scattered. They were well preserved, but 

 heavy and brittle. According to one view, the bones 

 on the upper level represented a secondarv burial. 

 Below these was an undisturbed laver of loess ^ in 

 which were found the greater number of the skulls. 

 It has been held that these bones at the lower level 

 represented deposition and not burial, and that they 

 were therefore synchronous with the loess formation 

 in which they were found. The antiquitv of the re- 

 mains, it was further argued, was supported by the 

 character of the skulls, which were regarded as of 

 the Neanderthal type, as they had thick protruding 

 brows, low forehead, thick skull walls, and small 

 brain capacity. It was suggested that they held 

 an intermediate position between Neanderthal man 

 and the mound-builder tvpe of North America. 



On the other hand, it has been pointed out that 

 the occurrence of eight or nine bodies in such close 

 proximity pointed to burial rather than to deposition 

 by natural forces. Further, the custom of building 

 a fire on earth placed over the bodies is an occasional 

 feature in the burial mounds of this region. The 

 difference of level at which bones were found in the 

 lower stratum has been explained as due to the 

 burrowing of rodents, of which traces are evident in 

 the mound. The absence of fossilisation in the bones 

 would be difiicult to explain were the bones really of 

 the date claimed for them. Dr. HrcUicka is of the 

 opinion that the presence and similarity of position of 

 knife-marks on the edges or margins of the bones — in 

 nearly all cases the long bones and the skull — indicates 

 a custom such as that of cleaning the bones after dis- 

 interment as a preparation for secondary burial, while he 

 has shown that the resemblance to Neanderthal man 

 occurs in remains from Indian mounds in the same region 

 as that in which the Nebraska Loess man was found. 



' Loess : a deposit of glacial age, consisting of wind- 

 driven and sifted sand or soil, the result of denudation. It is 

 the product of a period of cold, and in a subsequent warm 

 period of moisture which accompanies the melting of the ice- 

 cap is deposited as clay, brick-earth, or mud. 



An adult skeleton and a portion of the jaw of a 

 child were found at Lansing, Kansas, in 1902, in a 

 terrace at the foot of a bluff on the banks of the 

 Missouri, at a depth of 20 feet below the surface, the 

 remains being separated bv a distance of about 70 feet. 

 They occurred in an undisturbed loess-like belt which 

 presents great variety of composition and considerable 

 irregularity of accumulation. The site was examined 

 by many prominent geologists ; but opinion as to the 

 geological age of the deposits remained divided, some 

 regarding them as true loess, while others judged them 

 to be of a much more recent age, and not laid down in 

 glacial times. Measurements of the bones of the 

 skeleton of the adult, which belonged to an individual 

 of about 35 years of age, were practically identical with 

 those of the present-day Indian of the Middle and 

 Eastern States. In default of a clear pronouncement 

 on the geological question the verdict on this important 

 find must, in the light of the osteological evidence, 

 be against a high antiquity. 



From this summary account of the more important 

 of the skeletal remains which have been regarded as 

 belonging to early man, two conclusions emerge. 

 Firstly, that no satisfactory evidence of geological 

 antiquity has been adduced, the geological data being 

 absent, or failing either to support the claim to 

 antiquity or, otherwise, to substantiate the imdis- 

 turbed character of the deposit in which remains have 

 been found. Secondly, that these early remains in 

 themselves exhibit none of the morphological differences 

 which would undoubtedly be found to exist between 

 a skull of remote antiquity and that of the Indian — a 

 race, it is agreed, of recent introduction. In the case 

 of possible exceptions, as, for instance, the Calaveras 

 Skull and the Missoiu-i skulls, it has been shown that, 

 while they differ from the normal Indian skull, they 

 conform in each case to a variant of that tv-pe. 

 [To be concluded in the November Number.) 



The Geology and Fossil 

 Plants of West Greenland 



By A. C. Seward, Sc.D., F.R.S., Pres.G.S, 



Maslcr 0/ Downing Colh'ge and Pro/essor 0/ BoUuiij in the University 

 of Cambridge 



From the granitic headlands of Cape Farewell, on the 

 latitude of the southern extremity of the Shetland 

 Islands, Greenland extends slightlv beyond lat. 83° N. ; 

 it is nearly 1,700 miles long, a distance equal to that 

 from the northern limit of the Shetland Islands to 

 the north coast of Africa, and has an average breadth 

 of about 600 miles. On the north-west Greenland is 



