ARCHEOLOGICAL RESEARCHES IN ARGENTINA AND BOLIVIA. 581 



ling- places I investigated, both in tlie Puna and at Tolomosa, no 

 object ^vas met with that couhl suggest foreign influence, and that, 

 although the number of specimens obtained from the last-named 

 locality was several thousands, it is still a toleral)ly risky proceed- 

 ing to endeavoi" to identify the former inhabitants of the dwelling 

 places with any still extant Indian tribe. More extensive research is 

 requisite before that can be attempted with any certainty of correct- 

 ness. ]\Iany circumstances point, nevertheless, to the Indians now 

 living in the Puna, though their numbers are exceedingly small, as 

 descendants of the tribes that were once so numerous and so powerful 

 in these regions. In s})ite of the great uncertainty still attaching to 

 this problem, I have, nevertheless, thought it desirable to touch upon 

 it here, in order to give rise possibly to a discussion upon it. 



