PREFACE VII 



was important to examine, even those the descriptions of which had 

 not yet been pubhshed, were placed freely at the disposal of the 

 writer and liis colleague ; Professor Axneghino and his brother accom- 

 panied them, notwithstanding the inclement season, for nearly three 

 weeks from point to point along the coast where vestiges of ancient 

 man or his forerunners were believed to have been discovered; H. 

 Santiago Roth visited Alvear with Mr. Willis; and de Carles, at the 

 instance of Professor Ameghino, accompanied the party to the distant 

 Ovcjero. Fmally, through the good offices of Seiior Moreno, the 

 writer received most valuable aid from the provincial authorities of 

 Patagonia and from several prominent citizens of the city of Carmen. 

 Sincere thanks are due to all of these gentlemen and to many others 

 by whom assistance was rendered. 



The first weeks of his stay were given by the writer to the study of 

 the available skeletal material attributed to ancient man or liis fore- 

 runners, in the Museo Nacional, the Facultad de Filosofia y Letras, 

 and the Museo de La Plata; while Mr. Willis devoted his time to 

 the examination at the same institutions of the many samples of 

 baked earth, scoriae, and other objects, believed to exhibit the activi- 

 ties of ancient man. Besides this, spare time was utilized by visits to 

 places in Buenos Aires which show exposures of the local formation, 

 and especially to the docks where the DijJrotJiomo skull had been dis- 

 covered, in search of first-hand information concerning this find. 



On May 24 Mr. Willis and the writer set out for the coast, along 

 which the more important specimens had been discovered, and a few 

 days after, at Mar del Plata, were joined by Professor Ameghino and 

 his brother Carlos. Examinations were made of the coast from north 

 of Mar del Plata to the Barrancas de los Lobos (see maps, pis. 1, 21; 

 figs. 1, 2), a section very important from the standpoint of arche- 

 ology and geology; of the more inland Laguna de los Padres, the 

 neighborhood of which was occupied up to late historic times by a 

 small body of Indians; of the coast about and to the northeast of 

 Miramar, a region interesting archeologically, geologically, and 

 because of finds, slightly farther to the south, of two "fossil "human 

 crania; of the Necochea and the Arroyo delMoro parts of the coast, 

 highly interesting because of recent finds there of a number ci "fossil" 

 human skeletons ; and finally of the Monte Hermoso bainuica^ which 

 yielded the Tetraprotliomo. 



On the completion of the foregoing work. Professor Amegliino and 

 his brother returned to Buenos Aires, the writer set out for the valley of 

 the Rio Negro, whence came many years ago the "fossil" Patagonian 

 crania, while Mr. Willis proceeded to visit certain of the inland hills 

 for the purpose of supplementing his geologic observations on the coast, 

 thence to the localities of Arroyo Siasgo and Alvear, the former the 

 site of a recent find of '^ fossil" man, and the other a well-known place 



