nds from the
mouth of the ravine to a point near the bridge, some distance above
where the remains were found. It is quite clear that the skeletons
were the remains of individuals who had died at the camp on the
river's bank and had been carried here for burial. This may have
occurred within the last hundred years or in fact at any time while
the Indians were still living in this vicinity.

The flood level of the Missouri is not more than 15 feet lower than
the level space along the sides of the ravine. The little intermittent
stream has cut down this depth through a deposit which is composed of
river sediment, wash from the hills on each side, and material carried
from higher levels by the brook itself in rainy seasons. At only one
point is there a real glacial deposit, and this does not extend for
more than 50 feet horizontally, and does not reach to the top of the
bank. It is at some distance from the graves, and may be due to a lobe
of the ice or to an iceberg. However formed or deposited here it has
no relation whatever to the skeletons. In a sense, the material in
which they were buried is "Kansan drift"; but it is drift which has
been redistributed and has come into its present position within a few
centuries at the most.

* * *

NEAR HOWE, NEBRASKA

Mr. Sam P. Hughes, who lives near Howe, has done considerable
excavating in that vicinity. He is an intelligent man and an ardent
student, but his ideas in regard to the age of his discoveries need
much revision downward. His chief work has been done north of Howe at
a place 9 miles from the nearest point on the Missouri River. Here is
a small level area at the end of a ridge sloping away in every
direction except at the narrow isthmus connecting it with the fields
beyond, which are at a level only slightly higher. Thus there is no
chance for any accumulation from the adjacent surface. On this ridge
are a few lodge sites which Hughes has excavated. In every respect
they are similar to lodge sites reported from other localities in this
region. The walls, the depression, the floor, the fireplace, are all
the same. The depressions are filled with earth to a depth of 18 to 22
inches above the level of the old floor; and Hughes reports that
wherever he has dug on this ridge he has found flint chips, charcoal,
fragments of pottery, and scraps of bone to about the same depth. Next
below the soil is the Kansan glacial drift; but the assertion