August 1, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



195 



extended over the region between Guayaquil 

 and Riobamba, at the center of the valley re- 

 gion between the double range of the Andes 

 which exists in this latitude, and the triangu- 

 lation is now in progress in this valley region. 



Three months were spent at Riobamba, and 

 during this time the determination of the 

 fundamental astronomical elements, longitude, 

 latitude and azimuth were made and the fun- 

 damental base line was measured. 



The base is ten kilometers long and two 

 measures of the base were made in two and a 

 half months with a resulting difference be- 

 tween them of seven millimeters. A four- 

 meter bar was used in measuring this base. 



After measuring the base the mission was 

 divided into two parties, one of which con- 

 tinued the triangulation in the vicinity- of 

 Riobamba while the other proceeded to Quito 

 for the purpose of measuring a base of verifi- 

 cation and to determine the latitude of the 

 northern extremity of the arc. One of the 

 officers returned to Guayaquil and proceeded 

 to Payta in Peru by sea in order to do similar 

 work at the southern extremity of the arc. 



The programme of the work for 1901 was 

 successfully completed and the measurement 

 of angles now in progress in the region to the 

 north will be complete in 1902. 



In 1903 and 1904 work in the region to the 

 south between Riobamba and Peru will be 

 completed and the measurement of an arc of 

 the meridian six degrees in amplitude will 

 be an accomplished fact with only a delay of 

 four years, or within the time fixed in the 

 beginning. 



The difficulties are great as a description of 

 the country shows; the altitude of the work is 

 unusual, the resources are meager, the cli- 

 mate unfavorable and the means of communi- 

 cation very inadequate. Numerous vexations 

 have been encountered, owing to the lack of 

 intelligence in the inhabitants, such as the 

 destruction of signals, the digging up of the 

 marks, etc., but these are not of a nature to 

 stop the observers before they have completed 

 the work they have undertaken. 



In conclusion M. Bourgeois expresses his 

 pleasure in rendering homage before the So- 

 ciete Geographie to the knowledge and energy 



of his comrades, the officers of the mission, and 

 also to the zeal and endurance of the non- 

 commissioned officers and soldiers who accom- 

 pany them, all of whom have exerted them- 

 selves to the utmost for the honor of French 

 science. 



I. W. 



A FOSSIL MAN FROM KANSAS. 



In April of the present year, two young 

 men living in the vicinity of Leavenworth, 

 Kansas, in the excavation of a fruit storage 

 cave near their residence, discovered a number 

 of human bones. They paid but little atten- 

 tion to them, supposing them to be of little 

 interest, but a brief reference to the dis- 

 covery finding its way into the newspapers 

 induced Mr. M. S. Long, the curator of the 

 museum of Kansas City, a gentleman well 

 known for his interest in, and as a collector 

 of, things anthropological, to visit the locality. 

 He recognized the scientific value of the find 

 and secured such as remained of the bones 

 discovered. Unfortunately, while the larger 

 part of, if not the complete, skeleton had orig- 

 inally been present, many of the bones had 

 been mutilated beyond repair or lost. A 

 newspaper account of the find was widely 

 published as that of a glacial man. 



At the request of, and in company with, 

 Mr. Long I have recently had the pleasure of 

 making a careful examination of the locality 

 whence the bones came, as also of the pre- 

 served remains themselves. This examination 

 leads me to the firm conviction that the speci- 

 men is of great interest as representing the 

 oldest reliable human remains hitherto dis- 

 covered in North America. The reference of 

 their age to the glacial period, though er- 

 roneous, was easily inferred from the pres- 

 ence of the characteristic glacial boulders 

 lying on the side hill above the excavation. 



The tunnel or cave excavated by the Con- 

 cannon brothers is directed horizontally into 

 the side of a hill to a distance of seventy- 

 three feet, near the mouth of a small though 

 deep ravine opening on the flood plain of the 

 Missouri River, nineteen miles northwest of 

 Kansas City, and within a few miles of Lan- 

 sing, Kansas. The skeleton was found at the 



