48 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 33 
In the 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 the © 
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 protected — 
e . . a . . 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? 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.’ 
The bones are quite hard and not very brittle; they are not sufh- 
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 surfaces 
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 bone, 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. 
dAmerican Anthropologist, n. s., V, no. 2, 19038. . 
€ 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 parietals— 
within the cranium. 
