FowKE] ^ ARCHEOLOGICAL, INVESTIGATIONS 159 



mainly from floods carrying uniform soil sediment. The line of 

 demarcation between the dug and the undug earth in such condi- 

 tions may become indistinguishable except when a vertical face is 

 made which shall show a clear section of both in contact. 



It is now too late to learn anything about the matter from the 

 site itself. So many persons have been digging that it would be 

 impossible to know when the limit is reached between the original 

 excavation — assuming it to have been made — when the bodies were 

 interred, and that resulting from the modern researches. The ques- 

 tion of age hinges upon the appearance of the earth in which the 

 bones were found; and the only way in which we can now learn 

 anything about it is to trench across the hill at some of the other 

 burial places, in the hope of finding bones at a similar level, and 

 determining from the conditions in which these are found how 

 they came there. 



It is beyond question that any soil, humus, or other discolored 

 matter thrown into an excavation with ordinary soil or subsoil Avill 

 be apparent for an indefinite time afterwards. But on some of these 

 high points and ridges there is even now not a trace of soil. Frost 

 and wind have worn bare spots where nothing groAvs or has grown 

 for a long time. As this region was a prairie devoid of even brush 

 when the whites settled here, it is evident that such slight protection 

 as grass or weeds afford would not be sufficient to hold the earth in 

 place in winter, and when the ground is once swept bare such 

 humble forms of growth may not get a foothold in future. Anyone 

 who has studied surface geology knows these facts. 



So at present the whole question of the age of these bones resolves 

 itself into a statement of one party that they were found in undis- 

 turbed loess, as reported; and of the inability of another party to 

 show that there may have been an error of observation or a mistaken 

 interpretation. 



There need be no such doubt in regard to the age of the mounds 

 or the lodge sites. It would not take many centuries for mounds 

 upon these sharp, exposed ridges to be entirely washed away, in 

 spite of the fact that the fine loess is almost impermeable. Rain may 

 not reduce them to an appreciable extent, but frost and wind will 

 gradually wear them down. As to the lodge sites, their similarity to 

 modern Indian houses is so pronounced that we are fully justified 

 in attributing them to the same degree of culture as that of the In- 

 dians of a century ago. The only point of difference is that the latter 

 dwellings have not such deep excavations, but the incursions of war- 

 like tribes, or the restlessness that impels a primitive community to 

 be frequently on the move, seems a simpler explanation of the differ- 

 ence than to suppose that identical types are separated by a great 

 period of time. 



