100 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 52 



On page 398 of the same report Professor Amegfcino returns to the 

 subject of thase worked stones and expresses the view that ''The 

 larger pebbles were utilized by the man of that epoch [Inter-Ensena- 

 dean], giving origin to a stone industry entirely distinct from any of 

 those known up to date. This industry is in certain respects more 

 primitive than that of the eoliths of Europe." 



In April, 1910, the same author published an article devoted 

 entirely to the ''New Stone Industry." ^ The principal parts of this 

 report are here quoted. 



In 1908, at Mar del Plata, "I had the good fortune to find an 

 ancient stone industry different from all those hitherto known. . . . 



"This industry comes from the inferior Pampean and from the 

 middle part of the Ensenadean, i. e., the eolo-marine strata cor- 

 responding to the Inter-Ensenadean marine transgression . . . 



"It is in these eolo-marine strata that is found the debris of 

 Homo pampxus, and it is also from these same strata that the stone 

 objects here dealt with are derived. It is therefore the stone industry 

 of the Homo pampseus, who at this epoch inhabited the seashore. 

 These stone objects are nearly always isolated, and lay almost 

 invariably on the surface of the eolo-marine bed from which they have 

 become exposed by the denuding action of water during a period of 

 thousands of years." 



However, not quite all the implements gathered by Ameghino lay 

 on the surface of the eolo-marine Inter-Ensenadean strata; "there 

 were also found such as were still inclosed in the original deposit, 

 and among those that were already loose there are some which still 

 retain a strongly adhering, fine and often very hard grit, characteristic 

 of these deposits." 



As to the material from which these stone objects were made, it 

 "consists [p. 190] of rolled and elongated pebbles of quartz, porphyry, 

 basalt, phonolith, and other eruptive rocks, which man gathered from 

 the seashore at low tide. These are absolutely foreign to the country 

 and to-day are not found except in the Inter-Ensenadean layer. The 

 material is entirely similar to that which constitutes the great forma- 

 tion of rolled pebbles that covers the surface of Patagonia, and without 

 doubt a strong marine current which ran along the coast at that time 

 transported these pebbles from Patagonia up to Mar del Plata." 



As to the characteristics of this stone industry, Ameghino still 

 considers it (p. 192) "different from all those that are known." 



In the way of further information about the locality of the finds, 

 Ameghino states (p. 192) that — 



"Mar del Plata is a point or peninsula formed by a heavy stratum 

 of Paleozoic quartzite which projects into the sea. This mass is 



1 Ameghino, F., Une nouvelle Industrie lithique: L'industrie de la pierre fendue dans le Tertiare de 

 la region littorale au sud de Mar del Plata; in Anales del Museo Nacional de Buenos Aires, xx (ser. lii, 

 t. xm), 1911, pp. 189-204 (separate, 1910). 



