492 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [NOV., 



NOTES ON A PREHISTORIC RACE OF YUCATAN. 

 BY R. W. SHUFELDT, M.D. 



During the month of June, 1912, I received, through Mr. E. W. 

 Nelson, of the Biological Survey of Washington, D.C., from my son, 

 Mr.' P. W. Shufeldt, who for several years has been a resident of 

 Campeche, Yucatan, a consignment of some human remains, which 

 he had collected in that country. Mr. Nelson had received these 

 with other biological material which my son had sent him, and I 

 have pleasure in thanking him here for his courtesy in transmitting 

 them. 



About a month after this material came into my hands, my son 

 wrote me an interesting letter, in which he requested me to make 

 such use of all he had sent as I thought best, and, further, he gave a 

 brief account of the region in which he had collected the aforesaid 

 material, and other notes. 



This material I found to be the broken and fragmentary remains 

 of a human skeleton or skeletons, all of which I shall fully describe 

 further on in this contribution. 



From my son's letter I transcribe the following information, 

 which I give in his own words: "As you perhaps know, the penin- 

 sula of Yucatan — or at least such part of it as is familiar to me — is 

 evidently formed of upheaved sea-bottom, and that within com- 

 paratively recent times. It is now covered with a thin cap of decom- 

 posed vegetable mould, and more or less heavily forested in the 

 less civilized portions. At the time of this upheaval, there were 

 formed a series of low, rolling hills, with more or less level swales in 

 between. The part of which I write is almost destitute of running 

 streams or rivers, and all the available fresh water is that which is 

 collected during the rainy season in the lower depressions in the 

 swales, which are known as 'aguadas.' 



'The land which is being worked by the company with which I 



am connected comprises something over a million and a half acres, 



situated in the southern half of the District of Champoton. With 



this land I am more or less familiar, and it was here that the human 



lins were collected. At the present time, there are a few isolated 



