268 The American Geologist. April, i89<.» 
History (vol. xxiv, pp. 424-450; vol. xxv, pp. 241-246) and otherwise 
brought to the notice of the public in numerous high-class periodicals. 
The evidence was also summarized in my volume on "Man and the 
Glacial Period " (p. 297), with supplementary discussion in the second 
edition (pp. xviii-xxi). 
In the portion of Mr. McGee's report just quoted, there are three 
errors of sufficient importance to demand attention, ist. Major Pow- 
ell is made to say, that the Nampa figurine is "alleged to have been 
found under the Tertiary lava-sheet in Idaho." 
But this is exactly the opposite of what I have alleged, and adduced 
evidence for believing; while Maj. Powell, whatever he may allege, 
has produced no evidence to prove that the lava-sheet of Nampa is 
Tertiary. In my first communication to the Boston Society, Mr. S. 
F. Emmons furnished me an extended report on the geology of the re- 
gion, in which his conclusions are formulated as follows: 
"I had been unable to find any fossil evidence of the age of these 
I)cds. but on other grounds had assimied that they were late Tertiary or 
early Quaternary. They had a yovmger appearance than the Pliocene 
deposits of Nevada, and on the other hand looked older than the 
Quaternary deposits of lakes Bonneville and Lahontan." 
"...I must confess that at present I see no evidence which would 
decide whether the Nampa beds are late Tertiary or early Quaternary 
except that furnished by the drill hole, which if authentic would be iu 
favor of the latter." 
In my second communication to the Boston Society I presented 
further evidence upon this point collected during an extended per- 
sonal investigation of the region in the year 1890. This I will now 
present more fully. 
At Nampa no fossils were obtained from the well; while the strata 
passed through, with the exception of a thin lava-sheet near the sur- 
tace, were entirely of unconsolidated material, being mostly quick- 
sand (amounting in all to 170 feet), separated by three thin strata of 
clay, one of which was six inches thick, another six feet, and the third 
from twelve to fifteen feet. No drill was used below the lava; and so 
readily did the quicksand come into the pump that a great pile accumu- 
lated at the mouth of the well, far in excess of that which would come 
immediately from the hole. No shells or other remains of life were 
reported from the well until reaching a vegetable soil at the bottom, 
320 feet below the surface, from which point, in connection with num- 
erous clay balls, mixed with sand, the figurine referred to was brought 
up. There is nothing, therefore, in the well record at Nampa to in- 
dicate Tertiary age. 
As tending to shed light upon the problem, I looked carefully for 
definite evidence in the surrounding country. An important discovery 
bearing upon the question was found at Glenn's Ferry, a railroad sta- 
tion upon the Snake river 85 miles east of Nampa. The station at 
Glenn's Ferry is "]"] feet higher than that at Nampa. But, as Glenn's 
Ferry is on the river, and Nampa upon the plain, the general descent 
