SKELETAL REMAINS 57 



Mr. Phalen s figures indicate that, except as regards oxide of alu 

 minum, both the Osprey skull and the North Osprey bones show 

 greater alteration in their inorganic constituents than do the bones 

 of the fossil mastodon. 



The Osprey skull presents a marked diminution of the phosphoric 

 acid that is, the phosphates as well as of oxide of lime, and a pro 

 nounced increase of silica and especially of iron. It is plain that a 

 portion of the phosphates and calcium compounds have been replaced 

 by silica and iron, and in that degree the bone is a fossil. 



The North Osprey bones show a somewhat smaller loss of their 

 original inorganic constituents than the Osprey specimen and a cor 

 respondingly smaller gain of iron ; but the increase in silica is about 

 the same as in that skull, and there is present a considerable portion 

 of oxide of aluminum, absent from the Osprey cranium. The bones 

 are therefore to be looked on as being slightly less fossilized than the 

 Osprey skull and as fossilized in a different manner. 



The chemical determinations accordingly leave no doubt that the 

 bones in question are fossilized in a considerable degree, a condition 

 which has been very generally regarded as an important indication 

 of antiquity. 



PHYSICAL, CHARACTERS 



The Osprey skull (plate vi, a) was thus reported by Leidy : 



The specimen consists of the base of a skull, the vault broken off and lost, 

 but retaining part of the face and a fragment of the mandible. The alveolar 

 portions of the jaws and teeth are also absent. The fossil beneath is embedded 

 in a mass of hard bog ore, while the bottom of the cranial cavity is occupied by 

 fine, coherent, siliceous sand. 



The fossil skull itself is converted into limonite, and the portions where 

 exposed are well preserved and not in the slightest degree eroded or water- 

 worn. The specimen indicates a well-proportioned ovoid skull, and closely 

 approximates in shape an ordinary prepared French skull, such as the writer 

 has lying at the side of the fossil. The forehead and contiguous portions of 

 the face accord with the usual condition in a white man s skull. The super 

 ciliary ridges are but moderately produced and the nasal bones are large and 

 prominent. The occiput has the usual appearance, while its muscular markings 

 are not more developed than commonly. Comparative measurements of the, 

 fossil with a French skull are as follows: 



Fossil French 



skull skull 



Glabella to occipital protuberance 170mm. 178mm. 



Breadth above the auditory meati 131mm. 132mm. 



Breadth of forehead at the temporal ridges 102mm. 104mm. 



To the above description may be added the following: The speci 

 men is a small adult or nearly adult and apparently masculine cra- 



Notice of Some Fossil Human Bones, by Prof. Joseph Leidy, Transactions of the 

 Wagner Free Institute of Science, 11, 11-12, Philadelphia, 1889. 



