On my return trip I stopped at Superior and visited the Pike monument near Republic, Kansas. A number of lodge circles are to be seen on an eminence commanding a view of the Republican river, but the general appearance of the site is disappointing. There are but a few acres in the site, and after a careful study of l'ike's very meager description of the vil lage, which he visited in 1806, one can scarcely believe this is the identical spot. Be that as it may, the state of Kansas and Mrs. Elizabeth Johnson have done a noble and praiseworthy work in marking the Pike village. If this is not the spot, it is at the very least approximately correct, and the event is the main thing after all. The real reason for marking the spot is the fact of our flag being raised there in 1806. This event is fittingly celebrated and the historical fact is commemorated by this shaft. The petty contention for the exact spot should be laid aside and all should join in gratitude to Mrs. Johnson and the state of Kansas for their noble work.

No flint spalls were found in or near this Pike village site. It is stated that Pike moved his camp from the bank of the river to a high point commanding a view of the village. There is no such point of high land near this monument. Nor is the surrounding country exactly as one would.expect to see from Pike's description. I drove north and west from this monument to the site of another village about three miles south of Hardy. This village site is also in Kansas. It occupied an eminence about a mile from the river bank. At the base of the hill there gushes forth a spring that is known far and wide as "Big Springs." The water flows out over a hundred acres of pasture land and joins the Republican river. Near this spring I found a chipped flint 81⁄2 inches long and 4 inches wide which weighs 14 pounds. It is of light brown flint. The flint was found by the Indians in strata about an inch thick, as can be seen by this specimen. The sides still show the limestone which rested on either side of the flint stratum. The specimen is very similar to the ones found on the Platte and Elkhorn rivers, and if we did not

know from history that the Pawnees once lived on the Republican river this specimen would establish a relationship between the people of the Platte and the people of the Republican. It is Pawnee in size, material, shape, and individuality of chipping. Where the material came from originally is yet unknown, but very probably from Wyoming. Other spalls and broken implements were found on the high point above the Springs, showing that once a considerable village of Stone Age people lived here.

James Beattie once owned the land where this implement was found, and he said that a number of lodge circles were still to be seen near where the old fort was built when he came to live there in the early '60s.

He also told me that two miles west of the Big Springs was another ruin of an Indian village site.

A MOUND EXCAVATED NEAR ENDICOTT.

August 9 I started for a brief view of the field in Jefferson county. I had notes about a chipping field near Endicott on the farm belonging to F. M. Price, but could find nothing worth mentioning in that line; however, I found a mound on this farm which seemed worth opening. A few arrow points had been found in the vicinity, but I was not able to see a single one.

The farm is now operated by Mr. J. W. Edwell, who very kindly gave his consent to open the mound. It was at the highest point of a hill in a rolling pasture on S.W. 14 S. 17, T. 1 N., R. 3 E., and about two miles south of the Little Blue river.

The surrounding hills are covered with a brown sandstone, having irony streaks through it. In some places this rock is soft and crumbles easily, while in other places it is as hard as iron and contains small pebbles in a conglomerate mass as if fused in iron.

These rocks cover a considerable area, but do not extend very deep; they crop out at the top of the hills and appear to

be a cap which only extends half way down the hill. Immediately under these rocks one finds a red and brown clay.

The mound was in the midst of large, flat, irony sand rocks and was about two feet above the surrounding rocks; it was ten feet across and nearly circular. The soil which was mixed with the rocks seemed darker in color and was more fertile, as was evinced by the vegetation growing there, and it was probably carried from the valley. This is what first attracted my attention. The rocks at the edges of this mound sloped toward the center, showing that they had settled. The mound was probably much higher at one time. From the appearance, I concluded I had found the sepulcher of some noted chief, and I concluded to open the mound.

The rocks, extended to a depth of four feet. The mound had a covering of three courses of flat rocks about three inches thick. They were so large that it took two men to get them out of the hole. It seems that the oblong excavation was hollowed out of the original rocky hill about five feet deep, and something had been deposited there, as the soil for sixteen inches below the rocks was mixed with some dark fibery substance which left a whitish-green mould on the under side of the rocks.

There was not, however, a single scrap of bone or any substance other than the mould and displaced earth which would assist in determining what had been buried there. I doubt that it was a human body, as the form of the bones would have been found. It may have been meat, or it may have been hides or blankets. Whatever may have been placed there had so thoroughly decayed that no proof was left to determine it.

I am certain the mound was erected by human hands; I am certain coyotes could not have removed the bones if it were a grave, and the only solution I can give is that something had been cached there and then removed, the rocks and mound being replaced, or that the substance cached has

wholly decayed during the many years since the mound was made.

A well-defined, rude wall surrounded the oblong hole both above and below the flat rocks. The excavation was a little larger than the rocks which covered it, so that their weight rested on whatever was placed under them. This mound is near the old trail and a spring is found near "Pulpit Rock,” forty rods south.

The hard sandstone which caps the hills in this vicinity is the material which the Indians used to make "planers." These are blocks of sandstone about one and a half inches each way and from three to ten inches long. A groove is made lengthwise on the flattened side and the other three sides are rounded. Two of these planers are used together. A shaft which is to be used as an arrow shaft is placed in this groove. Both are held in the hand with the shaft held lightly between them. By drawing the arrow shaft back and forth it is made straight and smooth; it is made round by turning it as it is moved back and forth.

This irony sand rock made durable planers. They are found on almost every village site in the state. A streak of brown sandstone extends nearly across the state, but it is not always suitable for planers.

DONIPHAN TRIP.

An interesting discovery was recently made in the clay pit at the brick yard near Doniphan, two miles south of the Platte river in Hall county. About twenty acres of the clay has been removed to a depth of thirty feet. About the 1st of July they began to remove the clay from a deeper level and uncovered an area of several hundred square yards to a depth of thirty-six feet. At this level the workmen came to black surface soil not fit for bricks.

I investigated this locality August 23. I found this stratum of surface soil to be about four and a half feet deep -three times as deep as the black soil on the present surface.

The loess deposit immediately above this stratum of black soil is intermixed with charcoal and bones. The bones are not human, and I saw no sign of a campfire or any area where the evidences showed that man had resided, but one of the workmen said that he saw two places which showed that a campfire had been maintained for some time. If evidences of man are found at this place there can be no question but he lived here in interglacial days, as the locality is such that the glacial loess alone could have buried this black surface soil. The area which was uncovered to the deepest level unfortunately was covered with water, and the spot where the workman saw the fireplaces could not be seen. Later we hope to see the area drained.

By digging at a point near, we exposed a cross-section of the black soil and were able to study it. This black soil is underlaid with a tough clay intermixed with coarse sand. It is a light yellowish-brown with a pea-green tint; while the clay above lacks the tint of green and has rusty streaks through it.

At one point in the cross-section was a crack extending vertically the whole way down, through the loess above as well as the black soil. This crack was one-sixteenth of an inch wide and was washed full of very light yellow soil. The crack appeared the same width all the way and extended across the excavation, showing on both sides of the pit.

The bones, as well as blocks of the soil, were secured for the museum. Mr. John Schwyn, who owns the brickyard, is a student of archeology. He has kindly consented to keep a close watch when the second level is being removed, and we hope to secure reliable facts about this surface which was covered so many years ago.

If evidences of man are found in this clay pit it will forever settle the problem of the "Nebraska Loess Man." The surface here is eighty feet above the Platte level, two miles from the river, and on a level with the surrounding tableland. It is in a comparatively level country where a "land slide" could not happen.