SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I928 I7 



It was also assumed that the entire deposit ahove the No. i bed was 

 fossil-bearing. The process followed the past season consisted of 

 working over the No. 3 bed first and stripping it cleanly from the 

 contact plane before developing the No. 2 bed. In this way several 

 important observations were made possible. These necessitate an 

 interpretation of the origin of the deposits cjuite different from that 

 assumed by Dr. Sellards and others, but they bring strong confirmation 

 of Dr. Sellards' former view that the human remains found in the 

 No. 2 bed indicate the contemporaneity of man with the fauna of that 

 zone. These observations may be l)riefiy stated as follows: 



First, it was discovered that the upper or No. 3 bed is entirely of 

 swamp and wind-l)lown sand origin, and that this bed where undis- 

 turl)ed by recent stream cutting is almost barren of fossil remains. 

 This suggests that continued swamp conditions from the time of its 

 beginning to the present have excluded land animals from the areas 

 now covered by this deposit ; also that man would probal)ly not have 

 made any burials there either during or since its accumulation. Fur- 

 thermore the very nature of the beds, which are made up of sharply 

 defined, alternating and interfingering layers of loose sand, swamp 

 muck, and light leaf-mould, forms a very effective seal over every 

 thing below them, a seal through which it would be almost impossible 

 to break by any kind of excavations and refilling without that fact 

 being readily detected. 



The second important conclusion reached after uncovering large 

 areas was that the unevenness of the contact plane was not due to water 

 erosion of any kind but was caused by more or less regularly basin- 

 shaped depressions of varying sizes and depth. It was noted also that 

 fossil remains of relatively recent appearance were found strewn over 

 all this contact plane, with occasional association of human artifacts 

 and fossil remains evidently worked out from the underlying No. 2 

 bed. The No. 2 bed was found to contain an unmixed extinct fauna 

 from top to bottom. Alost of the material was much broken, and many 

 instances were observed of pieces of bones belonging to a single indi- 

 vidual being scattered over several feet of area on the same level, 

 indicating that the accumulation of this deposit had been gradual and 

 almost undisturbed by the action of stream currents. The No. 2 bed 

 seems to be mostly of wind-blown origin. 



In this deposit at about mid-section was found this season an arrow 

 point or stone knife of human origin, and a few years ago within 

 a hundred yards of this spot was found a crushed human skull and a 

 few scattered bones near the top, but entirely within the limits of the 

 No. 2 bed. 



