146 N. H. WINCHELL — WAS MAN IN AMERICA IN GLACIAL PERIOD 



It has already been remarked that the main body of the loess orig- 

 inated contemporaneously with the existence of the lowan stage of the 

 ice-sheet. If the supposition which has been so irequently set forth by 

 those who have studied the problems of the Pleistocene that the ice- 

 laden continent settled to a level below its present attitude be accei)ted, 

 it l)ecomes evident at once that all southward flowing streams would be- 

 gin to fill up their channels, where before they ma\^ have been excavat- 

 ing them. They wandered more widely and frequently formed lake like 

 expansions. The ice itself and the till which it bore along or any pre- 

 existing till which it may have disrupted were more or less buried under 

 the slime which resulted from this checking of the erosive and trans- 

 porting action of the rivers. In many places the slime and the till were 

 mingled in a promiscuous mass, partly by the lingering activity of the 

 ice and partly by the stagnant drainage. The flood-plains were built 

 above their former levels by constant and annual accretions from the 

 muddy waters. They rose in many places, if not everywhere, to the 

 level of the old valley bluffs. The rivers as such were sometimes con- 

 verted into widely extended lakes, which dropped the same sediment, 

 over the submerged country. What could be more certain than that 

 during this filling of the valleys by the growth of the flood-plain, given 

 sufficient time, the snail fauna of the respective latitudes would creep 

 out, as now, on to the flood-plain, and that its testae should be buried 

 under the accumulating sediments ? 



The Lansing Skeleton 

 the matrix of the skeleton 



In thus dwelling on the structure and origin of the loess and on the 

 conditions of its accumulation, I have aimed to clear the way for the 

 rational and intelligent consideration of the main topic, namely, Was 

 man in America in the Glacial period f I will call your attention now 

 to the late discovery of human remains at Lansing, Kansas, in the loess 

 deposits of the Missouri valley. 



I have examined this locality on two occasions.* The first was on 

 August 9, 1902, when I had the company and the assistance of Professor 

 S. W. Williston, of Chicago ; Professor E. Haworth, of Lawrence ; Messrs 

 ]\L C. Long and Sid. Hare, of Kansas City, and Warren Upham, of Saint 

 Paul. The second visit was on October 18, 1902, in company with Mr 

 J. V. Brower, of Saint Paul. On reaching the spot, we found Mr Gerard 

 Fowke and Mr M. C. Long, under direction of Professor W. H. Holmes, 



*My visits were made at the invitation of Mr J. V. Brower, president oJ the Qiiivira Historieal 

 Sjociety, and in cooperation with him. 



