118 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 52 



to be carried away easily by boys, and ranch hands would not be 

 likely to take them from the barrens and scatter them over the pas- 

 ture. It is much more probable that at least some of these stones 

 remain to-day on the identical spots where they were left by the 

 natives who used them. 



An additional fact which may be mentioned in this connection 

 is the find on the more inland portion of the denuded part of the 

 Campo Peralta of two accumulations or arrangements of larger 

 unworked stones, which showed man's agency. One of these was in 

 the shape of a right angle and the other formed a small mound. The 

 latter in appearance suggested a grave-covering, but on excavation 

 no confirmation of this theory was discovered. A large and well- 

 made metate and other stone utensils were placed there, in all 

 probability by the original inhabitants, or those who worked the 

 "black" as well as the "white" stones found in the vicinity. These 

 artificial stone piles served to indicate even better than did the gen- 

 eral level of the ground about them the small amount of denudation 

 that has taken place on the spot since their construction. (PL 11.) 



The second locality where worked stones were actually found by 

 the writer in the black surface soil, was the top of the high north bank 

 of the Rio Quequen, near Necochea. This locality yielded only small 

 specimens, but a large quartz implement that might have been used 

 as a hand ax was found deep in the ground in digging a well a few rods 

 away. This specimen is in Professor Ameghino's hands. A very 

 large quartzite object of the same type, but slightly cruder, was 

 gathered by the writer from one of the black playas about 20 miles 

 to the northward. Articles of stone were by no means rare in the 

 surface soil in the locality under consideration, and were said by the 

 writer's guide, the gardener employed by Professor Ameghino to col- 

 lect antiquities in that neighborhood, to have been even more 

 common formerly. Many have been exposed by wagons passing 

 over and breaking the ground. In this locality there is no denuded 

 playa or exposed old surface; yet the specimens here collected are 

 identical in their characteristics with those from the playas among the 

 sand dunes. 



A special variety of flaked stones was discovered at Monte Hermoso. 

 The writer found that the Monte Hermosean formation exposed in the 

 now famous barranca was covered by more recent material. On 

 the old formation rests a layer of volcanic ash, then some stratified 

 sand, while the highest part is formed of a stratum of gravelly sand, 

 continuous with the base of the sand dune situated above and a little 

 farther inland from the edge of the barranca. The last-named sur- 

 face material is unstratified and somewhat packed, but in no way con- 

 sohdated, and bears every evidence of being very recent. It crumbles 

 over the clearly marked, ancient Monte Hermosean deposit, and in 



