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SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 7<S 



animal bones with which they were found. More recently a dis- 

 covery, similar to that at Vero, was made near Melbourne, about 

 40 miles north of that place. The importance of this new discovery 

 was recognized, and accordingly Dr. Gidley, under the auspices 

 of the Bureau of American Ethnology, was detailed to ]\Ielbourne, 

 where with the aid of Mr. C. P. Singleton, a local amateur collec- 

 tor and the first discoverer of fossil bones in that vicinity, a pre- 

 liminary investigation was made. 



For this investigation, Dr. Gidley left Washington, December 15, 

 1924, and returned January 4, 1925. This trip resulted in locating 



Fig. 27. — North bank of drainage canal about three miles west of Mel- 

 bourne, Florida. Showing exposures of No. 2 and No. 3 beds and top of 

 No. I bed. (Photograph by Gidley.) 



several good prospects and in procuring by gift from ■Mr. Single- 

 ton, a fine specimen of the Florida mastodon which included a nearly 

 complete skull and lower jaws. While in Melbourne, Dr. Gidley 

 met Prof. F. B. Loomis of Amherst College, who also had come 

 there to look over these fossil deposits. There followed the formu- 

 lation of a tentative plan, afterwards approved by the authorities 

 of Amherst College and the Smithsonian Institution, for a joint 

 field expedition to more thoroughly explore the localities in the 

 vicinity of INIelbourne and to re-examine the fossil beds at Vero. 

 This joint expedition, which left Washington on June 21 and re- 

 turned August 7, met with gratifying success in the way of adding 

 considerable new evidence to be considered in working out the problem 

 of earlv man in Florida. 



