Evening star., 1937-12-28

man." the American aborigine whose
bones were discovered in q Western
Minnesota road cut in 1881, lived dur
ing the last (Wisconsin) ice age today
was placed before the meeting.
Re-excavation work done at the site
by DR.. George K. Kay Of the Univer-
sity Of Iowa and Morris M. Leighton,
director Of Illinois Geological Survey,
has shown the skeleton is a. old as
the silts in which 1t is embedded-an
estimated period Of $4,000 to 10000
years.
Discovery Of Minnesota man" was
one Of several tentatively proving
mans existence in North America
while glaciers still cloaked most Of the
northern half Of the continent.
Drs. Kay and Leighton claimed to-
day to have definitely proved the skele-
ton was not injected into the silt by
some later landslide, but was buried
there when the sediment was laid
down.
Geological evidence, they said to-
day. points to the fact the layers Of
silt passed uninterruptedly over the
skeleton when it was unearthed.
According to DR.. Albert E. jerks
of the University Of Minnesota, the
measured and observed morphological
characters Of this skeleton proclaim
1t to be primitive Homo sapiens Of
an early evolving Mongoloid type al
ready prophetically suggesting the
American aborigines, especially the
Eskimo. more than the Asian Mon
goloids"
Continents Washed Away.
Biologists have attempted to CAL
culate the age OF the earth and its
rock formations by determining the
rate at which continents are washed
into the sea-
There are many fallacies in regard
to determinations Of this basis, ac-
cording to Prof. Alfred c. Lane Of
Tufts College and Gordon Ritten-
house OF the United States Soil Con-
servation Service, in papers presented
today.
Given an average height Of 1000
feet for North America and a rate Of
erosion Of a foot every 1000 years,
the average man would Jump to the
conclusion it would take 1000, 900
years to wash the continent into the
sea.
Prof. Lane. however, pointed out
today that the time needed to reduce
North America the last foot would
be up in the high millions because
Of the low gradient and uniform
height, whereas the time needed to
reduce it the first foot would be COM
paratively short.
According to this, it would take
1900 900 years to reduce the average
height from 1000 to 200 feet. The
process could be plotted graphically
by means Of hyperbola.
Besides this evidence of the fall
lacy Of using erosion rate as a time
determiner, is the fact that man has
recently interfered with the rate by
cutting trees, plowing and generally
destroying the natural course of
events. The amount Of North Amer
lea yearly washed into the sea may
have increased because of this
However, Mr.. Rittenhouse pointed
out, gross erosion-the material
moved from higher to lower levels
on a continent-must not be con-
fused with net erosion-the amount
Of material which actually goes to
join father Neptune.
Nevertheless, he cautioned that hu-
man interference had been sufficient
to merit critical re-examination" of
previously determined rates.
Process Held Prolonged.
All this, Of course. John c. Reed Of
the United States Geological Survey
pointed out, does not take into con-
sideration that continents tend to rise
as they are denuded, which would pro-
long the process indefinitely.
So, it can easily be seen, there is no
danger of Americans losing their con-
tinent at least for many millions Of
moons, although some changes may
have to be written into the geologic
time scale.
Discovery Of new reserves Of man
ganese, highly important strategic
mineral resource in which the United
States is sadly lacking, which may i'm
prove the outlook for the manganese
production of the country, was de-
scribed today before the society.
A paper by DR.. H. D. Miser and
DR.. D. F. Hewett, both of the United
States Geological Survey, revealed that
prospects for future production in the
area, near Batesville, Ark, had been
considerably frightened by results Of
field work by the two authors.
However, both hastened to point out
that this increase in possible produc-
ton would not enable the United
States to even approach self-sunciency
In this all-important resource.
At present, records show the United
States, operating under so per cent
tariff produces only per cent Of the
manganese used in steel smelters and
other industries throughout the coun-
try. Even during the war emergency
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