20 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL, 33 
VII—THE SODA CREEK SKELETON 
Soda creek is situated in Colorado, in longitude 105° 40’, latitude 
39° 39’, at an altitude of about 6,570 feet. There are numerous 
springs in the locality, some hot and some cold, the water of which 
deposits mineral substances. In September, 1860, according to a 
report by E. L. Berthoud, C. EK.2— 
Two miners, who had been for two months and a half opening a mining claim 
about 200 yards southwest of the springs and at the foot of the hill marked 
on the map of Soda hill, reached at last in the gravel, bowlders, and rocky 
deposits of Soda bar a depth of 22 feet; here at this depth and about 3 yards 
from the foot of the hill slope they found a human skeleton lying on its face 
and embedded in a deposit of gravel, sand, small bowlders, and fragments of 
the adjacent rock in situ. . . . The skeleton, all whose larger bones, 
though very light and porous, were yet intact, and whose skull was also entire, 
was in a very tolerable state of preservation. Under the skeleton and about 2 
feet lower down they found upon the surface of what the miners eall “ red 
rock,” the trunk, limbs, and roots of a small pine tree, identical in all respects 
with the red pine (P. variabilis) of the adjacent slopes. The bark appeared 
charred and blackened, the wood was light, yellow, and apparently sound. 
On exposure to air, however, it soon became soft and crumbled, more 
like rotten or water-soaked wood. The roots and limbs appeared as if vio- 
lently compressed or forced in the seams of the underlying rock. There, then, 
was a point conclusively shown—namely, that prior to the cause which covered 
Soda hill, Soda bar, and Dry Diggings hill with its enormous beds of gravel, 
sand, and bowlders, and its native gold . . . man roved and dwelt in this 
region. . . . Whatever cataclysm buried this member of the human family, 
be he Aztec, Indian, Esquimaux, or Mound-builder, he is for the region above 
mentioned “homo diluvii testis.” 
Berthoud’s account leaves much to be desired from the standpoint 
of geology. It gives the impression that the material covering the 
human remains and the pine may have been talus of no great antiq- 
uity. The skeleton represented undoubtedly an intentional burial, 
otherwise the bones would have been crushed. It did not seem to 
present anything very extraordinary and was not fossilized. There 
is no report of a scientific examination of the bones, and no clew is 
given as to what became of them. Under these circumstances it is 
impossible to arrive at any definite conclusion regarding the antiquity 
of the find. What evidence there is speaks more against than for any 
considerable geological age of the skeleton. 
VIII—THE CHARLESTON BONES 
Emil Schmidt, in his Zur Urgeschichte Nordamerikas,’ gives nearly 
all that is known concerning these specimens. It appears that Prof. 
F. S. Holmes, geologist and paleontologist, of Charleston, while ex- 
“Description of the Hot Springs of Soda Creek . . . together with the remarkable 
discovery of a human skeleton and a fossil pine tree in the bowlder and gravel formation 
of Soda bar, Oct. 13, 1860, Proceedings of Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, 
XVIII, 342-345, 1866. 
Arch. f. Anthrop., Vv, 250 et seq., 1871-72. 
