Editorial. 



The discovery of human remains under twenty feet of debris 

 near Lansing, Kan., has revived interest in the antiquity of man 

 in America, and fortunately on more hopeful lines than hereto 

 fore, since the mode of occurrence at Lansing is more definitely 

 determinate than in most previous cases of the kind, and the 

 geologic elements of the problem are more declared, though, as 

 it happens, they belong to a much overlooked yet very common 

 type. The recent studies of Brower and Winchell on the 

 quartz chips at Little Falls have brought that case into more 

 definite form. 



There remain about the same differences of interpretation as 

 heretofore, but these will pass away as the specific identification 

 of glacio-fluvial, alluvial, and sub-aerial adjustment deposits 

 becomes more familiar and precise, and as their interpretation is 

 at once given greater latitude and made more strictly dependent 

 on discriminative criteria. 



In the judgment of the writer, neither of the above cases 

 affords any substantial ground for affirming the presence of 

 man in America during the glacial period ; but they do afford a 

 strong presumption that man in this country has witnessed very 

 notable progress in the deepening of the channels of the 

 Missouri and Mississippi rivers. In time there may be found 

 means for estimating the rate at which these rivers are lowering 

 their channels, but at present these are wanting, and there is no 

 trustworthy method of estimating in years the time consumed 

 in the deepening which has taken place since the human relics 

 were buried. 



T. C. C. 



70; 



