366 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 83 



I am not yet sure myself how much of the skull is preserved since I have so 

 far only uncovered the vault from the lambda to the massive supraorbital region 

 and from one temporal squame to the other. I have taken casts of it in this 

 condition and will recover the vault in plaster before uncovering the base in 

 order to take no chances of breakage. The left half of the skull below the 

 temporal squame is embedded in very hard travertine and the nasal and part of 

 the glabellar region is similarly enclosed so it will be some time before the 

 whole is entirely worked out. But the base which is still in its field wrappings 

 of burlap and plaster is, I think, fairly free from travertine, and can easily 

 be exposed after I have completed the preliminary casts of the vault. I do not 

 yet know if one or both poria are preserved but I am hopeful from the look of 

 the vault. The supraorbital ridges are massive as one expected from the jaw. 

 They are apparently equal in development to those of Pithecanthropus. The 

 frontal and parietal development of Sinanthropus is much more advanced than 

 the Java type but the frontal development is apparently less than in Eoanthropus. 

 Sinanthropus is of approximately similar length to Pithecanthropus but its 

 shape implies a considerably larger volume than the latter. I shall report on 

 this specimen at the Annual Meeting of the Geographical Society in February 

 when I will know a bit more about it. The December 28 Meeting is only to 

 announce the discovery and to show the casts and photos. I hope to have a 

 fairly complete report on the cranium with photos and drawings ready before the 

 spring and I shall send you further details as soon as I know anything. We 

 have not nearly completed the working of the original deposit and this is the 

 fifth distinct locus within it that has yielded Sinanthropus remains. I now 

 have enough teeth alone to describe completely the deciduous and permanent 

 dentition of this form aside from the two jaws and innumerable other specimens 

 still in their field wrappings. We need the leg, arm and foot bones now to 

 complete the picture but if our luck holds as it has so far we should get these 

 next year. 



I shall let you know when my work has progressed further exactly how much 

 of this specimen is preserved. 



On January 27, the preceding was supplemented by a more explicit 

 statement, and with it Professor Black had the great kindness to 

 enclose a precious photograph. The statement reads as follows : 



DISCOVERY OF SKULL OF ADULT SINANTHROPUS AT 

 CHOU KOU TIEN 



On December 2 last Mr. W. C. Pei of the staff of the Cenozoic Laboratory of 

 the Geological Survey of Giina, while excavating a sheltered recess of the main 

 deposit at Chou Kou Tien discovered the greater part of an uncrushed adult 

 skull of Sinanthropus pekincnsis. Mr. Pei at once recognized the importance 

 of the specimen and personally carried out the difficult work of excavation and 

 subsequent field preparation of the block of matrix in which it lay. It is 

 entirely due to his skill and devotion that this bulky mass with its unique and 

 fragile contents reached the Cenozoic Laboratory quite undamaged. 



Mr. Pei has been in charge of the Geological Survey's field excavations at 

 Chou Kou Tien during the past season. He was also associated with Drs. Bohlin 

 and C. C. Young in the work of excavation carried on at that site during the 



