14 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOL<><^ [m-u.. : 



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

 same locality, can not lx> accepted as geologically ancient, mile th<- 

 geological evidence should be absolutely decisive. Feature- charac- 

 teristic of inferior stages of human development, though to be . \ 

 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 REMAINS 



Interest in man's antiquity in this country began to manifest it -elf 

 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 Priehard 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 tg indicate the pres- 

 ence of early man was 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 follows: 



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



B. The Quet>ec (Canada) skeleton, discovered in (?) 



C. The Natchez (Mississippi) pelvic bone, discovered in 18415 



D. The Lake Monroe (Florida) bones, discovered in _ l.ST>2r l.XT:i 



E. The Soda Creek (Colorado) skeleton, discovered iii-_ 1800 



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



G. The Calaveras (California) skull, discovered in 



H. The Rock Bluff (Illinois) skull, discovered in 



I. The Pefion (Mexico) skeleton, discovered in 



J. The Trenton (New Jersey) skulls, discovered in__ 



K. The Western Florida skull and bones, discovered in lsTl-1888 



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



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



N. The Nebraska " loess man," discovered in 1SS>4-1!HM; 



A majority of these specimens have been previously examined and 

 reported upon,'' and within the last few years the writer has re. \ 

 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, 18:<!>. 



'For bibliographical references, see the reports In this paper on the several flnds. 



