iiitDLifKA] STONE INDUSTEIES OF THE ARGENTINE COAST 119 



falling down becomes here and there lodged on the shelves or in the 

 tlepressions of the old formation. In common with Professor Ame- 

 ghino the writer found in such crumbled-down material some large 

 irregular and entirely fresh-looking fi-agments or chips of quartzite, 

 which indicate plainly the work of man. One of the heavier frag- 

 ments had been employed as a hammer, portions of the periphery 

 being distinctly worn by use. In addition, he found on one of the 

 upper ledges a well-finished scraper of jasper. Subsequently he ex- 

 tracted a number of quartzite chips or fragments from the more 

 gravelly part of the uppermost deposit itself, within 18 inches of the 

 surface. No "black" or "white" material and no anvil-stones were 

 seen in the neighborhood, but the visit was too short to determine 

 their absence. It is probable, however, that such specimens are 

 wanting entirely or are very rare, since in this part of the coast there 

 is marked absence of the hard pebbles which were utilized so freely 

 farther north and to some extent also farther south, near Bahia 

 Blanca, by the Argentine natives. 



From Monte Hermoso the writer proceeded to the southern limits 

 of the Province of Buenos Aires and to northern Patagonia. Archeo- 

 logic finds here also were quite numerous, and some discoveries were 

 made which are of special importance in their bearing on the antiquity 

 of the peculiar "black" stone "implements" of the more northern 

 part of the Argentine coast. 



These finds were made in and near the valley of the Rio Negro. 

 In these regions, "black" pebbles comparable in size to those of the 

 more northern parts of the coast are rare on the surface but not 

 totally absent, and were utilized by the natives. In general, the 

 stone work of this territory differs from that farther north in the pro- 

 fusion of chipped blades, arrow points, spear points, and drills. 

 There are also stone mortars, pestles and mullers, and a peculiar 

 type of ax. Yet, with all this, one finds occasionally a "black" 

 flaked stone exactly resembling those of the neighborhood of Mar del 

 Plata, Miramar, or Necochea. Several such specimens were col- 

 lected at San Xavier ( a locality well inland) , in the neighborhood of 

 Viedma (see fig. 39), and among the coast sand dunes near San Bias. 

 A particularly important find, however, was that of two anvil-stones, 

 absolutely identical in character with those of the coast of the Prov- 

 ince of Buenos Aires, on the surface of the alluvium in the confines of 

 a former settlement of the Rio Negro Valley natives, about 4 miles 

 south of Viedma. Here all antiquity is out of the question, for the 

 alluvial deposits of the Rio Negro, particularly those on the surface, 

 are very recent. Furthermore, the neighborhood has yielded a col- 

 lection of Indian skeletons and a large well-made' stone mortar. 

 Over the site were scattered numerous flakes and fragments of jasper 

 of different colors, some of which at least were derived from pebbles. 



