204 REVISTA CHILENA DE HISTORIA NATURAL 
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after carefully piecing and cementing the different fragments. 
(Description 1.) 
Not far from Coquimbo on the upper level of the terrace series, 
are a number of quarries, from which a porous calcarcous stone, . 
much used for filters and building purposes; is obtained. By 
accident. I heard that human remains were occasionally found 
there by the workmen. I repaired to the spot, and on questioning 
the men, they admitted that they did, from time to time, come 
across such remains, in the deposit immediately above the stone, 
and that they were generally in a good state of preservation. 
They invariably buried them again under the increasing piles of 
debris. 
Having obtained this information I set methodically to work 
on a portion of the ground entirely undisturbed. After three days 
work. I had the good fortume to find an almost entire male 
skeleton; in so good a state of preservation, and so little wea- 
thered, that it seemed to have been interred only a few years 
since. 
On a subsequeut occasion I was able to recover three other 
partial skeletons, all of them wanting their lower extremities 
This was cauced by a curious coincidence. The three interments 
had been made in a row, whose axis ran from north to south. 
The space between each separate grave was about 3 feet the 
heads all pointing in the direction of the rising sun. 
On uncovering the rock for a new quarry, the workmen had 
run their baseline exactly through the centre of the line of graves 
cutting the skeletons in two and carrying off in the rubbish the 
lower extremities, leaving intact the upper portions. 
At first I thought that this was a burial place of recent date, 
and might be referred to one of the numerous skirmishes that 
took place in the neighbourhood, during the revolutions of 1851 
and 1859. 
But the testimony of the owners of the quarries, a closer study 
of the remains themselves, and an examination of the soil from 
which they were taken, convinced me that they were of conside- 
rable antiquity. This probability was strengthened by the num- 
ber of stone objects found buried with the remains, some of them 
showing no small degree of skill in their manufacture. 
A few days later Iwas lucky enough to come across another 
grave, containing in this case a group of three skeletons; an adult 
female, and two children, one quite an infant, also several inte- 
resting stone objects, among others two mullers of a peculiar 
pattern, a square stone evidently used as a mortar and some 
stone ornaments. (see figs.) . 
A close examination of the ground satisfied me that it had not 
been disturbed for hundreds, perhaps for thousands of years. 
