hrdliCka] stone industries OF THE ARGENTINE COAST 105 



"I have just succeeded in encountering this more ancient and more 

 primitive industry which I will call The Broken-stone Industry (indus- 

 tria de la inedra quehrada) . 



"In 1889 I described and photographed a fragment of stone which 

 I had found two years before at Monte Ilermoso and recognized its 

 primitive form, but without forming an exact notion as to the 

 character of the industry of which it formed a part. 



"Toward the end of the last of May and during the first half of 

 June, I visited the Atlantic coast of Mar del Plata and farther south, 

 accompanying the North American delegates, Messrs. Hrdlicka and 

 Bailey Willis, with the object of showing them the distinct deposits 

 which yielded remains of fossil man or vestiges of his primitive 

 industry. 



"On the 11th of June, in the afternoon, we visited Monte Hermoso, 

 where with difficulty we were able to stay a couple of hours. 



"I found the barrancas of the locality modified into a form very 

 distinct from that which I have known. 



"The deposits of sands and sandy ground wliich rest above the 

 Hermosean and constitute the Puelchean stratum, formerly visible 

 over a small space of only about 40 meters, now appear exposed 

 along the barranca for several hundred meters and also to a greater 

 extent vertically. 



"In the superior part of tliis formation of stratified sands I dis- 

 covered a considerable number of fragments of quartzite of the 

 most varied and irregular forms, all or nearly aU angular and with 

 cutting edges, from among which, the time being so short, I was able- 

 to collect only a small series. 



"On examination these fragments proved to be those of water- 

 worn pebbles of quartzite, derived from the nearby Sierra de la 

 Ventana, which were broken by knocking strongly one against the 

 other or with one on top of the other, without any determined 

 direction. Tliis is the most primitive stone industry of which I have 

 any knowledge, and I can not imagine anytliing more simple. 



"The larger number of these fragments preserve stdl on one or two of 

 their faces the natural surface of the roUed pebble, and on this surface 

 are always observed scratches, bruises, abrasions, dints, etc., pro- 

 duced by strong and repeated blows given Avith other stones. These 

 signs of percussion are so fresh and so plain that they appear as of 

 yesterday. 



"The borders of these broken stones terminate in slender and 

 sharp edges, but sometimes present irregularities, denticulation, and 

 other effects produced by use. 



"Tliis industry is without doubt still more primitive than that of 

 the eoliths, for the latter show retouching, either for sharpening the 

 edges or to facilitate the accommodation of the instrument to the 



