14 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 33 



with a skeleton or a skull of recent, or not very ancient, man in the 

 same locality, can not be accepted as geologically ancient, unless the 

 geological evidence should be absolutely decisive. Features charac 

 teristic of inferior stages of human development, though to be ex 

 pected in all geologically ancient skeletal parts of man, are not of 

 themselves necessarily proofs of antiquity; their presence only 

 strengthens the case if associated with other evidence of great age of 

 the specimens. 



II. LIST OF THE SKELETAL KEMAINS 



Interest in man s antiquity in this country began to manifest itself 

 at about the same time as the growth of interest in man s natural 

 history in general, and with the rise of the science of anthropology 

 during the earlier part of the nineteenth century. The work of 

 Morton in this country and of Prichard in England doubtless had 

 great influence in this direction ; Morton s Crania Americana a par 

 ticularly drew attention to the remains of the human skeleton. The 

 first find of importance of bones that seemed to indicate the pres 

 ence of early man w r as made in 1844, and similar discoveries followed 

 from time to time. The finds so far made include fourteen speci 

 mens or groups of specimens, the majority of which call for careful 

 consideration. They are as follow r s: 



A.- The New Orleans (Louisiana) bones, discovered in 1844 



R-. The Quebec (Canada) skeleton, discovered in (?) 



C. The Natchez (Mississippi) pelvic bone, discovered in__ 184G 



D. The Lake Monroe (Florida) bones, discovered in__ 1852 or 1853 



Eh The Soda Creek (Colorado) skeleton, discovered in__ Y __ 1860 



F. The Charleston (South Carolina) remains, discovered in (?) 



G. The Calaveras (California) skull, discovered in 18(30 



II. The Rock Bluff (Illinois) skull, discovered in__ I860 



I . The Peiion (Mexico) skeleton, discovered m__ 1884 



J. The Trenton (New Jersey) skulls, discovered in _ 1870-1887 



K. The Western Florida skull and bones, discovered in__ _ 1871-1888 



L. The Trenton (New Jersey) femur, discovered in__ 1899 



M. The Lansing (Kansas) skeleton, discovered in 1902 



N. The Nebraska &quot;-loess man,&quot; discovered in _ 1894-1900 



A majority of these specimens have been previously examined and 

 reported upon, 7 and within the last few years the writer has reex- 

 amined and compared all the more important available material 

 and besides has been able to visit the localities of the heretofore unde- 

 scribed western Florida skeletons. The crania and other remains are 

 dealt with according to chronological sequence of discovery, with the 

 exception of those from Florida, which are placed near the last for 

 the reason that, although brought to light some years ago, they had 



Philadelphia, 1839. 



6 For bibliographical references, see the reports in this paper on the several finds. 



