FOWKE] ARCHEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS 157 



A short distance from these sites, across a ravine, is a bare, narrow 

 ridge, very steejD on each side, so that erosion would readily act. On 

 the sloping summit of this are three small mounds which cover 

 communal burials. From one of these, the one farthest from the 

 summit of the hill, more than 80 skulls were taken and boys in the 

 neighborhood have since taken many more. They are all of the ordi- 

 nary Indian type, and can not have been buried more than a few gen- 

 erations ago ; but this fact has not prevented an age of " twenty 

 thousand years " being assigned to them. There is absolutely no 

 reason for fixing this or any other date. There is nothing whatever 

 to indicate the age, but 200 years would probably not be far from the 

 mark, because erosion has been slight since the mounds were piled up. 



long's hill 



This ridge has attained some notoriety as the site of Gilder's dis- 

 covery of the " Nebraska Man." The claim is made that human 

 bones were found at a depth of 14 feet in absolutely undisturbed 

 loess. The hill is a narrow ridge, facing the river on one side and 

 a deep ravine on the other. It is somewhat winding in its course 

 and is connected with the more level land in the rear at about half 

 a mile from its end. A wagon road up the point, from the river 

 bottom to the hilltop, shows undisturbed loess the entire distance. 

 There is no possibility of accumulation by wash or in any other 

 manner except decaying vegetation on any part of this ridge. 



Along the crest are several small mounds. Some of these, as shown 

 by excavation, cover graves, and the presumption is that all of them 

 mark burial places. 



It is needless to make any resume of (xilder's report, as it is so 

 well known, further than to say that he found burials and frag- 

 mentary human bones at various levels from 2^ to 14 feet. At 4^ 

 feet were burned bones lying upon burned earth and mingled with 

 it. This layer, bui-ned hard as a brick, served to prevent w^ater from 

 penetrating the earth immediately below; and it is in this earth that 

 the deepest remains were found. 



There are three ways, and only three, in which they could get 

 there : 



1. They were washed in when the loess was deposited, as claimed 

 by the discoverers and by some of the Nebraska geologists. 



In support of this view is the assertion that the bones were water- 

 worn. On this point I can not venture any opinion, as I have not 

 seen them. But I have found bones in mounds and in other situ- 

 ations where such wear was impossible and yet having the smoothed 

 and rounded appearance characteristic of such action by water or 

 the elements. 



