HUMAN RELICS OF LANSING, KANSAS 



749 



engineers found a depth of water of ninety feet in the Missouri 

 at a point about a quarter of a mile from his house, in what was 

 then the channel of the river, but which is now abandoned and 

 filled so that water covers the spot only at the highest stages of 

 the river. Until about eight years ago the course of the river 

 lay near the mouth of the valley in question, but is now diverted 

 to the opposite side of the bottoms. 



Fig. 2. — Diagram of the changes in the bottom of the Missouri river at Blair 

 Bridge in 1883, as recorded by Engineer E. Gerber. Figure taken from Todd's Btd- 

 letin United States Geological Survey, No. 158, p. 15 1. 



An accurate demonstration of the extent and rapidity of 

 bottom changes is furnished by the accompanying diagram- 

 matic record of the soundings at the Blair bridge, Nebraska, at 

 the intervals indicated, in the year 1883, quoted by Todd on the 

 authority of Mr. E. Gerber, assistant engineer F. E. & M. V. 

 railroad. 



An inspection of this will show that a skeleton might have 

 been deposited on the surface of the Carboniferous rock bottom, 

 much as in the case of the skeleton at Lansing, on the 28th of 



