G. GENERAL NATURAL HISTORY AND ZOOLOGY. 295 



Numerous small shells and deer teeth, all pierced with a hole, 

 were found around the skull, as if they had been twined in 

 the hair or formed part of a head-dress. Around the skele- 

 ton were found many stone implements and bone needles. 

 Associated with these were bones of various animals. 5 A, 

 July, 1872, 283. 



PREHISTORIC (?) MAN IN AMERICA. 



Several years ago General James H. Carleton, U.S.A., vis- 

 ited the abandoned drift of the Hanover copper mine, on 

 the side of a mountain ten miles northeast from Fort Bay- 

 ard, Grant County, New Mexico. The passage was made 

 through a body of earth to reach the solid rock. At the 

 distance of twenty-five feet from the mouth, and where the 

 earth overhead was perhaps equally thick, a portion of the 

 dirt roof had fallen away, and revealed an object which, on 

 examination, proved to be the cranial portion of an inverted 

 human skull. With a bowie-knife the general broke off a 

 considerable portion of the calivarium, the remainder being 

 imbedded so firmly that he could not remove it. 



He was unable to determine whether the rest of the skele- 

 ton was there or not, but is satisfied as to the completeness 

 of the cranium. In his visit he was accompanied by Gov- 

 ernor Robert B. Mitchell and Hon. Charles P. Cleaver, both 

 of whom were cognizant of the circumstances. The frag- 

 ments of the skull obtained by him were presented to David 

 L. Huntingdon, L T .S. A., then stationed at Fort Bayard. 



EFFECT OF INTERMENT ON THE STRUCTURE OF BONE. 



According to Carl Aeby, bones interred in the earth ex- 

 perience a similar change in the course of time to that which 

 takes place in surface rocks. The carbonate of iron of the 

 water acts upon the phosphate of lime, so as to produce car- 

 bonate of lime and phosphate of iron. The enamel of teeth 

 found in the pile dwellings is colored by vivianite, and Gop- 

 pert has observed the formation of large crystals of vivianite 

 in human bones. 



Mr. Aeby maintains that if the bones of domestic animals 

 from the pile dwellings contain less gelatine than recent 

 bones, they have been deprived of it not by time, but by the 

 process of boiling. 30 C,July, 1872, 567. 



