292 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
a depth of nine feet. Dr. Parr, of Weston, Missouri, found a similar vase in 
opening a mound situated on the summit of the bluff overlooking that place and 
the Missouri River. The vase contained within it the vertebrae of a fish, and 
some shell beads. The chief importance to be attached to Dr. Parr's find, 
as I have elsewhere, in another article, stated, is in the contents of the vase. It 
has been the custom of barbarous and semi-barbarous people to make provision 
for their departed friends, on their supposed long journey to the spirit land. 
The food provided is that which the people habitually use, and such a people 
invariably use the food which is most accessible to them. Hence, our modern 
tribes, who inhabit fertile dis:ricts, such as Missouri and Kansas, subsist almost 
entirely upon terrestrial animals, because such food is more- accessible to them 
than any other; and they would never have thought of sustaining a friend depart- 
ing for the land of spirits upon fish. But at the close of the loess deposit, prior 
thereto, and for a considerable time after its completion, conditions were differ- 
ent, and fish must have been more abundant and more accessible than terrestrial 
animals, hence the subsistence provided for the tenant of the Weston mound for 
his subsistence to the mystic land. 
It is not probable that any monument of primitive man will be found east 
of the Rocky Mountain range, and north of the fortieth degree of north latitude, 
older than the Champlain era, unless it may be in caves, or scattered in the 
glacial drift. It is highly probable, on the other hand, that all of the mounds in 
Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, and 
Ohio, north of that line, are about the same age, and correspond, within a few 
hundred years, at most, with the age of the Missouri River mounds, and stand 
associated with equivalent geological formations, i. e., they were all built fring- 
ing upon lakes which had a synchronous existence in the Champlain era. 
In view of these facts, we have reason to believe that the occupancy of the 
mound-builders began prior to the subsidence of the Missouri River and Kansas 
lakes, and that it was not continued long thereafter. It must have begun pre- 
vious to the subsidence, otherwise the remains and implements of this mysterious 
people would not be found in positions, as they are found, in the undisturbed prim- 
itive deposits. The changed conditions which followed the subsidence precludes 
the idea of their continuance much later without changed habits and modes of 
life. 
Their ingress was, probably, from the south, and extended northward after 
the close of the glacial period, however, and whenever man originally appeared 
on the continent. Outward, physical conditions determine, in a great measure, 
the modes of life of a primitive people. And this simple race, turning northward 
after the close of the ice reign, found the warm Champlain lakes filled with fish, 
inviting an occupancy along their hospitable shores. Here they erected their 
mysterious abodes, and drew their principal food-supply from the lakes. But 
time moved on with its relentless changes, the lakes were drained, and the sup- 
ply of food they afforded was diminished, while, on the other hand, the produc- 
tions of the land increased in a corresponding ratio. Conditions were changed. 
