500 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 3 5 



ever made are that the Lagoa Santa skulls of Brazil have by some 

 been referred to as being similar to those of European men of Aurig- 

 nacian times,^*^ while to others these same and similar skulls from 

 both North and South America have been likened to the skulls of 

 native Australians,^^ i. e., to a non-Mongoloid and, therefore, sup- 

 posedly a pre-Mongoloid inhabitant of the New World. But as a 

 whole our American^somatic collections of whatever locality appear 

 to be accepted as exhibiting no very marked changes with the passage 

 of time or any wide divergence from those of their nearest neighbors, 

 the Mongoloid branch of the existing human family. 



Failure of systeTnatic investigations. — A most striking feature of 

 American aboriginal antiquity researches is the fact that our ques- 

 tionable data are the results mostly of isolated accidental discoveries. 

 Deliberate investigations by both paleontologists and archeologists, 

 extending through nearly a century of time and ranging over most 

 of the continent, have yielded next to nothing of archeological im- 

 portance, Lund tried out more than 800 caves in Brazil alone, of 

 which only 6 yielded traces of man, and those of doubtful an- 

 tiquity. The West Indian caves have supplied similarly uncertain 

 results. ^^ In Yucatan numerous caves have been excavated by 

 Thompson, Mercer, and others, with even less of promise.^^ When 

 we come to the United States the situation is no clearer, although 

 protracted investigations have been carried out in practically all sec- 

 tions of the country where the topographic relief affords opportunity 

 for caves and rock-shelters.®° The number of possible sites thus tried 

 out is not definitely known, but it must exceed at least 2,000, probably 

 3,000. In the way of returns for all this labor — unless the Gypsum 

 Cave proves something really unusual — what have we ? Merely this : 

 Wherever culture debris has occurred in quantity there have been no 

 positive traces of Pleistocene fauna ; and, contrariwise, wherever 

 Pleistocene fossil fauna has been found in quantity there have been 

 no positive indications of man. And what is true for our cave de- 

 posits is true also for our out-of-door sites. The Princeton expedi- 

 tion to Argentina labored for 3 years in vain, so far as early man was 



" Myers, J. L., Cambridge ancient liistory, vol. 1, p. 48. 



»' Rivet, P., Bulls, et M6ms. Soc. Anthrop., 5th ser., vol. 9, p. 209, Paris, 1908 ; Journ. 

 Soc. Amgiicanistes de Paris, vols. 6-8, p. 147, 1909-11. 



■*' Harrington, M. R., Cuba before Columbus. Indian Notes and Monogr., Mus. Amer. 

 Ind., Heye Foundation, New York, 1921. 



™ Thompson, E. H., Cave of Loltun, Yucatan, Peabody Mus. Mem., vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 

 1-24, 1897 ; Mercer, H. C, The hill caves of Yucatan, Philadelphia, 1896. 



•"Cresson, H. T., Early man in the Delaware valley, Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 

 24, pp. 145, 147, 1890; Mercer, H. C, Publ. Univ. Pennsylvania, vol. 6, pp. 139-147 

 and 149-178, 1897 ; Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1895 ; Schrabisch, Max, Archajology 

 of Delaware River valley, vol. 1, 1930 ; Brown, B., The Conard Fissure, Arkansas, Mem. 

 Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. 9, pt. 4, pp. 157-208, 1908 ; Merriam, J. C, Recent cave 

 exploration in California, Amer. Anthrop., n.s., vol. 8, no. 2, 1906. 



