75§ T. C. CHAM BERLIN 



of the talus slope of the south bluff, it will run back of the 

 skeleton's site. The significance of this close relation lies in 

 the alternate depositional and aggradational work presumably 

 done by the Missouri river at and in the mouth of the valley 

 when it was truncating the adjacent bluffs on the one hand, and 

 forming the adjacent bottoms on the other, in accordance with 

 the principles of action outlined above. The accompanying 

 contour map and photographs (Figs. 4 and 6-1 1), with their 

 explanations, make these relations more definite. 



The precise locality of the relics is more closely defined by 

 an additional feature. A deep ravine starts near the crest of 

 the ridge bounding the tributary valley on the south, and running 

 nearly parallel with the truncated face overlooking the Mis- 

 souri bottoms, joins the axis of the valley a few rods west of 

 Concannon's house (see Fig. 7). East of this ravine there 

 was doubtless once a round-back ridge of the usual erosion type 

 with another ravine still to the eastward, but the encroachment 

 of the Missouri has cut away the eastern half and substituted a 

 steep talus slope. There now remains a sharp-edged spur 

 descending toward the axis of the tributary valley, with a talus 

 face on the side next the Missouri bottom, and a more gentle, 

 yet rather steep slope to the ravine on the other side. Follow- 

 ing down this sharp-edged spur, it is found to flatten somewhat 

 for a few rods at about sixty feet above the bottom of the 

 valley, much as though the flattened portion might be a remnant 

 of a small terrace, structural or otherwise. Farther on, this 

 breaks down, with rock exposure, for about ten feet to another 

 flattening for another few rods. On this lower shoulder Mr. 

 Concannon's house stands, beyond which the spur ends in a 

 sharp descent of about thirty feet to the dry run of the valley. 

 On the west side of the house the surface descends more gently 

 to the ravine above described. It is under this westward slope, 

 about one hundred feet back from the edge of the talus slope 

 facing the Missouri bottoms, and about seventy feet southward 

 from the little bluff facing the dry run of the valley, that the 

 human remains were found buried about twenty feet deep. 

 These details are given with some tediousness because they bear 



