10 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1917. 



nodular Hydrozoa (Beatricea) are scattered among the honeycomb 

 coral masses. 



Horn corals {Streptelasma rusticum Billings) are to be seen in 

 both the lower and upper coral beds. The spaces between the lime- 

 stone layers and also between the heads of coral were filled with 

 clay which contained many other examples of fossil life. 



Another coral reef in central Kentucky composed of a single 

 species {Stromatocerlmn pustvlosum Safford) was investigated and 

 several massive and complete specimens excavated for exhibition. 

 The" smallest of these was several feet in diameter. These conical 

 coral masses are restricted to a single layer of limestone, on which 

 account they serve to identify the bed from place to place. This 

 coral reef occurs in the Trenton limestone and fine outcrops occur 

 around Lexington, Kentucky, and it has been noted at many localities 

 in central Kentucky and central Tennessee. 



EXAMINATION OF ANCIENT HUMAN REMAINS IN FLORIDA. 



A good deal of public and scientific interest was aroused by the 

 finding of human remains in Florida under conditions which seemed 

 possibly to indicate extreme age. It was therefore desirable that a 

 critical examination be made of the bones and their environment. 

 Accordingly, on the invitation of Dr. E. H. Sellards, State geologist 

 of Florida, and as his guest, Doctor Hrdlicka, of the United States 

 National Museum, spent four days in the latter part of October, 

 1916, at Vero, Florida, where his time was devoted to the study of 

 the site from which certain human bones described by Doctor Sel- 

 lards were obtained, and to a preliminary examination of the bones 

 themselves. 



Doctor Hrdlicka reports as follows : 



Laborers were engaged, and with their help there was made a clean exposure 

 about 160 feet in length of the geological deposits in close proximity to the 

 localities where the human bones had been discovered. This afforded a com- 

 prehensive and enlightening view of the formations involved. 



The two human skeletons had been found in the south bank of a recently 

 excavated drainage canal. They occurred one in fairly close proximity to, 

 and the other within the broad, shallow bed of a small fresh-water stream, 

 now drained by a lateral cut from the canal. The former lay in dark and 

 somewhat indurated sands, the latter for the most part at the base of the muck 

 deposit of the stream bed, and between this and the next older stratum. A 

 few smaller bones, which probably belonged to the second skeleton, were found 

 at about the same level a short distance from the rest of the remains in an 

 elevation of the lower sandy layer. 



The first skeleton lay at a depth of 2$ feet, the second at a depth of 2 to 3i 

 feet from the surface. The deposits above the first skeleton consisted partly 

 of somewhat indurated and partly of ordinary sands, overlaid by a layer of 

 marl. The marl when freshly exposed was found to be of the consistency of 



