166 MATTHEW— RECENT DISCOVERIES OF 



Torre and myself. The following year i\Ir. Barnum Brown, on 

 Professor de La Torre's invitation and with his aid, made a more 

 thorough exploration of the Ciego ]\Iontero spring, and secured a 

 large collection. In 191 8 Mr. Brown completed the exploration of the 

 deposits around the spring, securing much additional material. Pre- 

 liminary notices of these collections have been published, the full 

 descriptions being postponed until all the available material had been 

 secured. The exploration of the deposit was a rather difficult 

 matter as the spring is a powerful one and the water had to be 

 pumped out and drained away by means of a gasoline pump, and 

 the spring openings cemented up, before the deposit around it could 

 be thoroughly explored. 



The Ciego Montero collections consist chiefly of bones of Mega- 

 loams and Crocodilus, plates of a giant tortoise and a terrapin, and 

 a few remains of other ground sloths, of rodents, lizards and birds, 

 and a good many bones of small amphibians. 



The Casimha. — Another important locality discovered by Dr. de 

 La Torre was in the Sierra de Jatibonico, in the central part of the 

 island, a fissure-spring at the bottom of a ravine where there was a 

 considerable deposit with fossil bones. These correspond with the 

 remains found at Ciego IMontero, except that the smaller ground 

 sloths were relatively more common. The material is equally well 

 preserved, but not nearly so much of it. This locality has also been 

 worked out. 



A number of similar fissure springs were examined by Dr. de La 

 Torre and a few fragmentary fossils secured, but nothing of impor- 

 tance. Probably deposits of this character may be discovered in 

 other parts of the island, and some further discoveries may be made 

 in this way. 



Cave Deposits and Kitchen Middens. — There are also many caves 

 in the limestone formations of Cuba, in all parts of the island. A 

 considerable proportion of these contain guano or similar phos- 

 phatic deposits which have for many years been dug out and used 

 for fertilizer. A few of them have recently been explored for fos- 

 sils, and some very interesting material secured. The old Indian 

 kitchen-middens, some in the caves, some elsewhere, have been 

 more or less exploited for prehistoric human remains by the anthro- 



