El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1901-01-08
Prehistoric Texans
Engulfed by Flood
Persisted like Victims of the Recent Disaster
at Galveston Bones of this Mysterious
People we're Recently Unearthed and will
be Exhibited at the Pan-American Expo
SitiOn at Buffalo

times three and four were found to-
gether. in some instances as many as
a being piled in a heap. as If a whole
'amily had gathered to meet death,
and persisted in one another's arms.
Some of the skulls of these pre-his-
toric Texans were of enormous size
md the majority of them had rather
low foreheads. A singlar fact observ-
I'd was that while all of the teeth
we're considerably worn. showing the
Use of hard foOd n age O, the FER
sons. there was in NJ case the slight
est indication of decay. a quite differ
ent situation from that observed in
relics of more odern but still pre-
historic Indians. among within dental
carries is comparatively common. Sew
eral thousand skeletons were removed
in the process of excavation. Fifteen
hundred were actually counted in the
first part of the excavation and doubt
less several thousand more were re-
moved. AS a rule they were soft and
damp when first uncovered. but many
became fairly hard after being exposed
a while to the SUM-. No bones of chill
dren were found and this was account
ed for by the superstition that they had
all decayed.
The situation of this remarkable ar.
Genealogical find was a deposit of
shell gravev1 n sand in a bank ON
sisting of about thirty acres nearly
surrounded by the Clear Creek. This
depisit consists of seven distinct
strata, each about three feet thick. and
between each stratum there is a depos-
it of silt or earth from "A inch to 1
inch in thickness. On the top of the
bank the soil is about eight inches
deep and large live oak trees grow
thicly over it. 1t is one of the last
places would go to in looking for
the remains of a prehistoric ace. No
tow of the strata are exactly alike,
some having a larger per cent. of
gravel than others. and the shells also
vary. Some are much larger thar
others. some are oyster shells n
some are clam. On the average the de-
post consists of about 40 per cent.
shell, 40 per cent, gravel and 20 per
cent, coarse and In the second lay
er from the top the bones were found
in great abundance. and in h bottom
layer, just at water level. and about 81
feet below the top of the bank. large
quantities of the bones were found.
Just how to explain this phase of the
situation has taxed the antiquarians.
Some suggests the possibility of two
successive tidal waves. n perhaps far
removed from the other in point of
time. The ivory beads found were
obouI III III IN " ~
2 inches long with a hole lengthways
and a diagonal groove cut on the side.
The exhibit of these bones in the
Ethnology building of the Pan-Amer-
C exposition at Buffalo will be a
most valuable n in view of the wide
interest excited by the fate of thous-
ands who persisted recently in this
same part of the country in the same
way.
The pbabifoptS IF tba onc;apf Dom
peii and Herculaneum persisted in a
day and their cities were blotted from
the face of the earth by the fiery food
from the burning mountain VeSuvius
but generations later the lava cover
ing the house has been removed and
their homes together with the skel-
etons, their utensils. and the remains
of their rich civilization have been I'M
covered to the curious gaze of the
scientist and the sightseer. Here, too.
in this western world lived a people
which was overtaken by fiood and
which persisted in a night. perhaps
longer ago than the e described
in Bulwer's Last Days of Pompeii"
and in the closing days of the 18th CEN
fury their bones have been taken from
the friendly earth which for SO many
ages had sacredly kept the secret of
their abiding place. And by a sin
gular combination of events the Sc
cret was dicovered just before the oc-
currence of nothe great tidal wave,
similarly disastrous to human life. and
in time for the exhibition of the relics
at the exposition which is to illustrate
the progress upon this continent of a
race which saw it not til perchance
thousands of years after the convul-
sion of nature which put the sea of
death upon the secret of this pre-his-
toric people.
Edwin Hale Brush.