it to have been made--when the bodies were interred, and that resulting
from the modern researches. The question of age hinges upon the
appearance of the earth in which the bones were found; and the only way
in which we can now learn anything about it is to trench across the hill
at some of the other burial places, in the hope of finding bones at a
similar level, and determining from the conditions in which these are
found how they came there.

It is beyond question that any soil, humus, or other discolored matter
thrown into an excavation with ordinary soil or subsoil will be
apparent for an indefinite time afterwards. But on some of these high
points and ridges there is even now not a trace of soil. Frost and
wind have worn bare spots where nothing grows or has grown for a long
time. As this region was a prairie devoid of even brush when the
whites settled here, it is evident that such slight protection as
grass or weeds afford would not be sufficient to hold the earth in
place in winter, and when the ground is once swept bare such humble
forms of growth may not get a foothold in future. Anyone who has
studied surface geology knows these facts.

So at present the whole question of the age of these bones resolves
itself into a statement of one party that they were found in
undisturbed loess, as reported; and of the inability of another party
to show that there may have been an error of observation or a mistaken
interpretation.

There need be no such doubt in regard to the age of the mounds or the
lodge sites. It would not take many centuries for mounds upon these
sharp, exposed ridges to be entirely washed away, in spite of the fact
that the fine loess is almost impermeable. Rain may not reduce them to
an appreciable extent, but frost and wind will gradually wear them
down. As to the lodge sites, their similarity to modern Indian houses
is so pronounced that we are fully justified in attributing them to
the same degree of culture as that of the Indians of a century ago.
The only point of difference is that the latter dwellings have not
such deep excavations, but the incursion of war-like tribes, or the
restlessness that impels a primitive community to be frequently on the
move, seems a simpler explanation of the difference than to suppose
that identical types are separated by a great period of time.

Three points must be taken into consideration in fixing a definite age
for these remains:

1. The relics found in