14 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 



The National Museum at present has practically no Panama mam- 

 mals. The birds now in the collection are chiefly from along the line 

 of the railroad and from Chiriqui. It has comparatively few rep- 

 tiles. The fresh-water fishes are poorly represented in the collections 

 and are of special importance for comparison with South American 

 forms. Land and fresh-water mollusks are much needed. The 

 National Herbarium is poorly supplied with Panama plants; in fact, 

 they are at present practically " a negligible quantity," and the 

 American herbariums taken together do not contain a sufficient 

 amount of material to form the basis of a general flora of Panama, 

 which is a work much needed. 



ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



In March, 1910, the Institution directed Dr. Ales Hrdlicka, Cura- 

 tor of the Division of Physical Anthropology, United States National 

 Museum, to proceed to South America and Panama Canal Zone for 

 the purpose of making anthropological researches, and particularly 

 to undertake investigation into the question of man's antiquity in 

 Argentina. A grant was also made to enable Mr. Bailey Willis, of 

 the United States Geological Survey, proceeding on his way to South 

 America in the interest of the world's topographical map, to cooper- 

 ate with Doctor Hrdlicka in his researches in Argentina, for it was 

 appreciated that the problems to be met with were to an important 

 degree of a geological nature. 



The undertaking of the investigation was especially due to Mr. 

 W. H. Holmes, Chief of the Bureau of American Ethnology, whose 

 observations during a visit to Argentina in 1908 made apparent the 

 far-reaching importance of the data being collected bearing on human 

 antiquity in South America. 



The subject of man's antiquity in South America dates from the 

 meager reports concerning the scattered remains in the Lagoa Santa 

 caves in Brazil, the casual Seguin finds in the province of Santa Fe, 

 Argentina, and the Moreno collection of old Patagonian material in 

 the valley of Rio Negro, and it has assumed a special importance 

 during the last decade through a relatively large number of reports 

 by Argentinian scientists, but particularly by Prof. F. Ameghino, of 

 new finds of the remains of ancient man and of traces of his activities. 

 Some of these more recent finds were so interpreted that, if corrobo- 

 rated, they would have a most important bearing not merely on man's 

 early presence in the South American Continent, but on the evolution 

 and the spread of mankind in general. 



Under these conditions, and in view of the fact that some of the 

 reports were not fully satisfactory as to their anatomical or geologi- 

 cal details, it was deemed necssary to send down competent men 

 who might subject the whole matter to critical revision. 



