Januaey 18, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



111 



thickness of two and one half feet. Below it 

 was an iindisturbed layer of unmistakable 

 loess, and in it numberless fragments of 

 human bones and an occasional animal bone, 

 loess shells and stray angular pebbles. 



In brief, the conclusion is that in the case 

 of the upper bone layer there was burial, in 

 the lower, deposition. Those in the loess 

 doubtless antedate the hill itself while those 

 in the upper layer are subsequent to it. That 

 archaic burial could have taken place in loess 

 without detection is altogether improbable. 

 Of necessity there would result a mixture of 

 black with light soil and a breaking up of the 

 lithologic structure. Where these bones occur 

 the loess structure and color is perfectly pre- 

 served and it contains characteristic vertical 

 lime-tubes, concretions and shells precisely as 

 is customary. Out of the evidence at hand 

 the writer concludes that bones of this layer 

 were strictly synchronous with the loess 

 formation in which they were found, in sub- 

 stantiation of which comes the fragmental 

 nature of all of the bones, their water-worn 

 condition, their range of distribution, and 

 disassociation of parts. 



One would scarcely thinli of such condi- 

 tions being possible in the case of human 

 burial; besides it is improbable that a primi- 

 tive people would dig graves to a depth of 

 twelve feet. Should a people without tools 

 and appliances perform such an improbable 

 feat, would they bury water-worn fragments, 

 would they scatter them so widely as not to 

 exceed five or six pieces to the cubic yard? 

 How could they replace the earth in the grave 

 in such order and regularity that there would 

 be perfect structure and gradation of color 

 from soil to subsoil? 



Methods of Exploration. — Early in Novem- 

 ber the writer recognized that the bones in the 

 loess were apparently fossil, and great care 

 was exercised in all subsequent work. On 

 extending the cross trenches which Mr. Gilder 

 had dug, human bones scattered, water-worn, 

 fragmentary and unrelated were found in 

 natural undisturbed loess at all levels down to 

 eix feet. The most interesting single bit 

 found on this occasion was the left half of a 

 frontal bone secured at a depth of four to five 



feet. Later at a distance of five feet the 

 other half was dug up, and the two parts fit 

 together, completing an interesting low-browed 

 frontal. A jaw, which was found in undis- 

 turbed loess at a depth of four feet, was that 

 of a youth. The crowns of the teeth were 

 scarcely worn, so old age can not be assigned 

 as the reason for the absence of all teeth save 

 molars Nos. 2 and 3 in the right ramus and 

 No. 2 in the left. Just as the teeth of any 

 water-soaked jaw drop out readily, so it seems 

 to have been with this one. The inference 

 is that they were lost in the process of depo- 

 sition. A week later work was resumed, the 

 writer being accompanied by Mr. Robert F. 

 Gilder and Dr. George E. Condra, and the 

 attempt was made to be severely critical and 

 careful. 



All surface material was carefully removed 

 and three wide shafts were sunk on the north- 

 ern, eastern, and southern points of the 

 mound. Each shovelful of earth was scruti- 

 nized, all bone fragments carefully saved and 

 recorded. In all some twenty bits were found, 

 as follows : a fragment from the base of a 

 skull, fragments of ribs, limb bones, scapula 

 and sacrum; a clavicle, calcaneum, three com- 

 plete vertebrae, two metapodes and a phalanx. 



Some of the bits mentioned were but slivers, 

 other bits were two or three inches long. 

 Some were badly etched by water, others 

 gnawed by rodents. As each fragment was 

 unearthed a block of the matrix was kept and 

 as far as possible each fragment was pre- 

 served in position in the block. 



There were but twenty fragments in this 

 lot, for while it is true that the shafts were 

 sunk to a depth of eight feet, and while bone 

 chips were found at all levels, they were 

 widely scattered and few in number. Among 

 the fragments may be mentioned five or six 

 bits of skull, as many bits of rib, the angle 

 of a jaw, metatarsal No. 3, and two phalanges, 

 and with them bits of Anadonta, Succinea 

 avara, and several angular pebbles. When 

 work was resumed a few days later a circle 

 thirty feet in diameter was described con- 

 centrically about the mound, which is about 

 eighteen feet in diameter. The northeast 

 quadrant of the circle was divided into sectors 



