Page:Kansas A Cyclopedia of State History vol 1.djvu/93

 planing mills, brick and tile factories, a hotel, churches of several of the leading denominations, and in 1910 reported a population of 694. Communication with other places is maintained by telegraph and telephone in addition to the facilities offered by the postoffice, which issues international money orders and supplies the surrounding rural districts with mail through the medium of four free delivery routes.

Archaeology.—Webster defines archaeology as “The study of antiquities; the study of art, architecture, customs and beliefs of ancient peoples as shown in their monuments, implements, inscriptions, etc.”

The term is sometimes used in its narrow sense for the study of the material remains of the historic peoples of antiquity, especially the Greeks, Romans, Babylonians and Egyptians, and sometimes for the general scientific study of prehistoric man, when it is known as prehistoric archaeology or paleëthnology. Holloway's History of Kansas (p. 87) says: “Kansas cannot boast of a remote antiquity. Her soil never becomes the scene of stirring events until of late years. Her level and far-reaching prairies afforded but little temptation to the early adventurer. No ideal gold mines or opulent Indian city were ever located within her boundaries.”

While this is true in a general sense-so far as human antiquities are concerned-there is abundant evidence to show that Kansas has a remote antiquity along other lines. In prehistoric times southwestern Kansas was the bed of a great inland sea, where dwelt the ichthyosaurus and other gigantic animals, and in Barber county there are beds of petrified shells resembling the shells of the modern oyster. The antiquities of Kansas are therefore confined chiefly to the fossil remains of prehistoric animals, of which fine specimens are to be found in the collections of the University of Kansas and Yale University. Some years ago S. S. Hand found a fossil fish in Hamilton county, which he sent to Chancellor Snow of the state university, who wrote in reply: "My view about your fine fish is, that it lived and died when what is now Hamilton county, more than 3,000 feet above the present level, was under the salt water ocean. Remains of fishes, sharks and great sea monsters are found abundantly in the rocks of western Kansas, especially along the banks of the Smoky Hill river and its branches. In fact, the ocean covered the entire western portion of the United States. The Rocky mountains were not upheaved when your fish lived and died." (See Geology.)

Of the early inhabitants of Kansas, little definite information can be gleaned from the relics these departed races have left behind. Stone mauls, hammers, arrow heads and a few iron implements constitute the greater part of these relics, and the information they impart tells but little of the people who made and used them, or of the period when those people lived. Brower, in his Quivira and Harahey (q. v.) gives an account of his discovery of the sites of a number of ancient villages, and early in 1880 the Scientific American published an article commenting on the report of Judge E. P. West of recent archaeological explora-