MAN IN THE MISSOURI VALLEY. 685 



scattered over a space of twenty-five square feet, between four 

 and five deep in the undisturbed loess. The walls of this 

 were thick, measuring as much as three-eighths of an inch. 

 Counting all the fragments, Professor Barbour estimates that 

 there are probably ten or twelve individual skulls represented 

 in this loess bone bed and that comparison shows them to be 

 of the Neanderthal type, with thick cranial walls.* 



We are bound to say, however, that the glacial age of these 

 relics, like everything else of much moment in scientific dis- 

 covery, has been disputed by high authorities. Inthiscaseithas 

 been done by Professor B. Shimek,f an accomplished investi- 

 gator of land shells. From study of these in the loess deposi ts 

 of the region he has become an ardent advocate of the aeolian 

 hypothesis respecting the distribution of loess, and hence 

 approaches the question with the bias of that theory. For 

 a general discussion of the aeolian hypothesis the reader is 

 referred to the chapter on the Loess. It is sufficient to say here 

 that it is hardly possible that so experienced an authority as 

 Professor Barbour, and one so familiar with the loess of the 

 region could be mistaken in the matter. His excavations 

 were extensive, and most carefully mad e, and his conviction 

 of the undisturbed character of the portion of the deposit in 

 which the remains were found was unequivocal. Professor 

 Shimek's judgment in the case is also greatly discounted by 

 his equally positive, but certainly, erroneous opinion that the 

 deposit in which the Lansing skeleton was found was clearly 

 distinct from ordinary undisturbed loess, " evidently consisting 

 of slumped material.' ' In short there is no valid reason to 

 doubt the glacial age of the loess in which the remains of the 

 Nebraska man were found. 



The relic described by Miss Owen is an implement of 

 paleolithic type, chipped from a porphyritic pebble (probably 



* "Nebraska Geological Survey," vol. ii, part 5, pp. 318-327; part 6, 

 pp. 331-348. Also "Records of the Past," vol. VI, Feb. 1907, pp. 34-39. 



t "Bulletin of Geological Society of America," vol. xix, pp. 243- 

 254, 1908. 



