Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-07-12
ANCIENT THoRoUGHFAREs.
Paths Worn Deep in the Soil Along
the Western Rivers.

Robert F. Glider In the World Today
What the transcontinental railways of
today are to the people of the Unted
States the Missouri river was to the
unnumbered hordes who lived and passed
away thousands of years before Coium-
bus set foot on the soil of this continent
Both banks of the river were Travelled by
primitive man on this continent Tor I'M
recorded ages. Almost every hundred
Yards of the high bluffs which border the
river as it flows between the states OF
Nebraska and Iowa are the tumul ol
those who persisted on the way EVIL
dence of this is furnished by the modern
Investigator into the records of the past
who finds two three and sometimes four
LAYERS of human remains buried In SO
variable a manner as to lead to only one
conclusion.
The preventative qualities of the loess
hills which border the river valley nave
enabled the physical anthropolog1st OF TO-
day to draw distinctive line In the eVo-
luton of the original American from the
lowest cranial and skeletal types to the
well-developed Indian of this day. Some
of the ancient material recently found py
investigators shows cranlal and fac1ai
profile which might be well described as
| ''horizontar' in comparison with the Yer
| teal outline of the Indian found by
Lewis and Clark in this vicinity.
burial mound recently explored in
F,airmount Park Central Bluffs, Iowa,
shows four strata of human bones and
four distinct modes of burial. So great
is the variation in the four kinds of
crania that the layman could not fail to
draw the lines of demarkation at least
between the earliest or lowest and the
most modern or highest.
Remains of villages are everywhere
found, some showing occupancy by a
sedentary people while others. judging
from traces left behind. were but trav-
elers up or down the river
The views held by scientific investi-
gators concerning the settlement of this
continent center chiefly upon immigration
from Asia via the Aleutian Islands. down
the Alaskan coast TO Puget sound, up
the Columbia and Clarks Fork to the
Missouri headwaters. and down that
stream to the Mississippi and so on
south.
When Lewis and Clark journeyed TO
the Pacific, when Pike and Long crossed
TO the Rocky mountains. all three eXpedi-
lions chung to the rivers-the Missouri,
the Arkansas and the Platte. Had they
set out to cross the great plains ii meant
death from thirst or starvation, because
the game of the country ranged near the
streams Primitive man necessarily fol-
lowed the same line of reasoning which
| guided early explorations of white men
and governed the movements of the
lower animals. Water was the essential
! element about which all calculations re-
Volved.
Primitive man in crossing the continent
] chung to the great river of the west when
| journeyng east or west. He usually fol-
| lowed the paths made by game which
| lead along the Weathered ridges close by
| the river Countless ages OF use have cut
! these old trails deep into the earth. In
| some places they have been worn six
feet deep. Scattered along their edges
/ for miles can be found flint flakes and
| chips showing how the stone-age artisan
| improved his time when journeying by
| shaping out the implements required
scattering the debris as he travelled
| have followed these old trails on both
| sides of the river more than forty miles
! and have found flint chips everywhere