108 BUREAU OP AMEEICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 52 



depression, that exists in the not very high barranca forming the 

 coast, about 200 meters from the mouth of the Arroyo. 



"From the other locality I obtained seven examples, which were 

 also distributed superficially over the sand that covers in great 

 quantities the right bank of the Ai-royo at its mouth. With these 

 pieces I found an interesting scraper of rude form of the type called 

 "duckbill" by English archeologists, and further, two broken arrow 

 points belonging to the same industry to which I referred in previous 

 paragraphs. 



"I believe that the objects described in this note [the chipped 

 pebbles] belonged without doubt to the primitive stock of tools of 

 the indigenous native of the Bonaerean time. The products in no 

 way can be attributed to either natural or accidental causes , . . 

 neither are the traces of workmanship, use, or retouching on these 

 stones comparable with the apparent traces of such nature observed 

 on the pseudo-eoliths; . . . nor, finally, can the specimens be 

 attributed to the activities of those who actually live in these regions. 



"I entertain no doubts on the subject of the antiquity of the 

 material described and photographed in this note: It must be 

 referred without exception to the neolithic period of these regions of 

 South America. [^] 



"All the specimens on the left bank of the Arroyo Corrientes were 

 encountered superficially, and the same was true at Punta Porvenir.^ 

 In both localities I have removed the underlying deposits and have 

 not found similar remains. On the other hand, at Chapadmalal 

 and at the Arroyos Brusquitas and Durazno, all the objects came 

 not only from the surface of the ground, but were also found mixed 

 with implements and weapons of the pre-Spanish natives, represent- 

 ing the industry reported hitherto from nearly all the Bonaerean 

 culture-sites covered by the vegetal earth, or exposed on the surface. 



"The numerous objects of this last-named industry, gathered by 

 me at Chapadmalal and in other localities of the department of 

 Alvarado, present without exception the same luster and the same 

 blunting of the edges as those described specially in this note — 

 peculiarities which do not corroborate in any manner whatever a 

 great antiquity, but are well explained by the polishing action of the 

 sand carried by the waters or driven by the wind . . . 



[1 In relation to Professor Ameghino's statements regarding the paleoethnologie importance of Punta 

 Porvenir, Outes says: "It suffices to know that at Punta Porvenir the erosive agents have acted 

 extensively; that the waters have moved the ground at all levels, and the wind has accumulated the 

 detritic deposit of which I have spoken in the text. Hence it is probable, and a repeated examination 

 of the terrane confirms my belief, that the fossils and diverse objects recovered from the 'looser upper sand' 

 were not in an original deposit and that the suggestive picture of the primitive shelter described by Pro- 

 fessor Ameghino . . . can be explained, without doing violence to the facts, by diverse accidental 

 circumstances."] 



2 "However, supposing even that some of the specimens have been encountered buried in the ground, 

 it would still be requisite to proceed with reserve, because of the very special character of all the localities, 

 exposed to erosive agencies, which remove, transpose, and accumulate continually the earthy or sandy 

 materials." 



