PREVIOUS AND RECENT WORK 245 



who is of the opinion that the remains indicate a "primitive j^eople," and 

 Dr H. P. Osl)orn,* who concludes that "even if not of great antiquity, it 

 is certainly of very primitive type and tends to increase rather tlian dimin- 

 ish the probability of the early advent of man in America."" 



The geological evidence has thus far been presented only by Dr E. H. 

 Barbour,* who definitely refers the deposit in which the human bones of 

 the lower layer were found to "undisturbed loess." 



Field Woek 



Professor Barbour's very positive assurance that the loess was undis- 

 turbed, caused the writer to make an especially careful investigation 

 of the deposits shown in the Gilder Mound section before reaching a 

 definite conclusion, and he accordingly made several visits to the Long 

 hill locality and spent fully a week in the examination of the mound and 

 its immediate surroundings. In addition to this, he has spent much time 

 in the past twenty years in investigating the loess and glacial phenomena 

 in the territory including this locality. 



The first of the visits to the Gilder mound was in March, 1907, in 

 the company of Doctor Barbour and Mr Gilder, and the writer is indebted 

 to both gentlemen for much information concerning the details of their 

 observations, which made possible the closer connection of the observed 

 phenomena with the published accounts. The work was continued by the 

 writer on the following da}', but various misfortunes prevented its com- 

 pletion until the following summer, when two more visits, aggregating 

 five days, were made. 



Location op the Mound 



Throughout the greater part of its extent in eastern Nebraska, the val- 

 ley of the Missouri river is bordered by rounded and more or less inter- 

 rupted bluffs, which are distinctly unlike the wind-whipped bluffs of the 

 east, or Iowa, side. Northward from Omaha these bluffs recede from the 

 river in a slightly crescent-shaped line for a distance of about 8 miles. 



8 Century, vol. Ixxiii, .Tanuary, 1907, pp. .371-.37.5. 



° To these should be added the very complete paper hy Dr Ales Hrdlicka In Bulletin 

 no. 33, Bureau of American Ethnology, 1907, who concludes (page 98) : "Referring par- 

 ticularly to the Nebraska 'loess man,' the mind searches In vain for solid ground on 

 which to base an estimate of more than a modern antiquity for the Gilder mound speci- 

 mens." 



Doctor Hrdllcka's paper was received after the preparation of this discussion, and 

 while It contains interesting evidence and conclusions bearing on other phases of the 

 case, these are not here discussed, the writer deeming it more satisfactory for purposes 

 of comparison to leave the present paper unchanged. 



* See Bibliography. 



