The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1914-03-06
BUFFALO WAlLOWs
Of the Western Prairies Found
to Be Underground
Dwellings

University of Nebraska, has made the
"bufalo wallows'' of the west we're
never made by buffaloes. They are in
stead the ruins of underground dwell
ings in which thousands of years ago
lived a race which vanished other
thousands of years ago.
The "wallows" were thought to b.
what their name indicates even 10y
red men themselves knew nothing of
tls race that made the deps.
The modern Indians were just az
much surprised as the whites when
tn Y discovered what Professor tiilder
wss taking ont or the old in len'ations.
The arcbae1losist wouli poiut to II #
thu "wsllows'' and thsn tell the little
audience Just what he w ,u!d find in it.
This he was enabled 10 d. ty reason of
the curious sinilaritg in the arrange
ment OF and & e thi rs fonnd in t Q
e $. Tie Iudi ms 0ere appalled,,
however, 10y What they thought his
uncanny insight. ard now they call
him Man Nho-Sees-T hrough-tpe-
Ground"
Ire curious people w,rs SIX lie in
the art # making pottery and in turn
Ing cot realistic heads aud figures in
clay and stone. All their underground
hauses and caves wers built in the
shape of squares. These r~ectangles,
oddly enough, do not square like many
primeval dwellings with the points of
tL9 compass. but with the North Star.
which is a few de.r,es off due north
The majority of the caves have their
entrances at the south. and some have
inclines fifty feet long leading down to
the door.
This mysterious people dwelt by
millions on the prairies. Prof ssor
! Glider has uncovered near the west
/ bank of the Missouri river, near
! Omaha. what appears TO have been a
, metropolis of the race. Ethnologists
; who have examined the relics have
found no resemblance with either thf
PR Columbian Indian, OF with thu
mound builders.
There is no clew to indicate wht
these people were or how they were
wiped ont. Nor is it clear wha
4 condition forced a whole race to liv'
in burrows beneath the ground.
I However, among the Iuins of tn
llong-flled burrows Professor Glide
: has found a little carved head Df pinl
; soapstoue.
: The little pink head is Egyptian il
every feature. 1t is delicately carver
and highly polished. 1t is Egyptian
in ~hesddress. having even the rectangu
. lar earguard worn by The Egyptians
9 l. is more than Egyptian. It re
sembles the face of Rsmeses himself
lif the marble Dusts in oriental muse
inns today are images of the Egyptisl
king and the mummy uuesrthed in til
! sands of Egypt in 1881 and now re
0 posing 10 the B3ulak museum at Cair
/ is really his corpse.
Another clay image has the pro
Is nouncedly sloping eyes PECULIAR t
u Chinese.
.e Biologists have furnished some as
sistance to the archaeologists in deter
B. mining the probable age of the ruin:
If 1t takes years for black soil to accumu
late where it is not washed in. Thi
soil accumulates from decayiug grass
Is es. Darwin o:ce made an experimer
" in the accretion CT soil, and compute
n that but little over an inch collecte
a in a hundred years.
eel AT least loco years before Christ
say the biologists. our caveme
A. dropped into Oblivion and their home
had begun to decay
In uncovering something owe
thirty of these homes Professor Gil
der has established the general chal
acter of the caves and their contents
The floor is strewn with charred sticks
reeds, coarse grasses and charre
corncobs. In the floor of every "a
"A is found utensils aud the other walt
allies are hidden. 1t is this each
that the a~rchaeologis t always seek
! sometimes there are several in ii
. same cave. The mouth of the cache
!, a always found plugged with q layer
burnt clay. On top of this is a lays
of ashes. Beneath all, the cavit
widens like a jug or bottle, often
= the size of a hogshead.