122 BUBEAU OP AMERICAlsr ETHNOLOGY FBtTLL. 52 



"white" stone, or quartzite, industry before they began working the 

 beach pebbles, wliich, or the flakes from which, were to serve as a 

 substitute for the stone found farther inland. Finding, however, that 

 they could not entirely replace the quartzite, they kept on bringing 

 or importing a limited quantity of that stone and working it up among 

 the dunes. 



Whether the Indians used the "black" flaked pebbles to any 

 extent as implements is not as yet certain. If used, they were 

 utilized, in aU probabihty, only locally and not by any of the inland 

 tribes. The explanation of this appears simple. Inland the pebble 

 material is absent, while the sources of the quartzite were frequently 

 nearer. Furtliermore, the pebbles were evidently of but secondary 

 value as raw material, so that there was no incentive for carrying 

 them to any distance, and they yielded nothing, so far as known, 

 that would have been of special value for exportation. 



We have found, then, on the coast of the Province of Buenos Aires 

 archeologic remains of but a single culture, with a local phase in 

 working pebbles; a culture that can be referred to only one period, 

 though this may have been of some extent, and to only one people, 

 namely, the Indian of the same province; and this culture can not 

 possibly be of any great, especially of geologic, antiquity. 



The archeologic report by Professor Holmes (p. 125), on the speci- 

 mens collected, throws further light on tliis subject. 



Notes on Plata and Campo Peralta 



By Bailey Willis 



Immediately south of Mar del Plata is a little bay, between Cabo 

 Corrientes andPuntaPorvenir, the shore of which is known as the Play a 

 Peralta (pis. 1, 21; also fig. 2). This shore is a slope rising at first 

 slowly and then more sharply to the gently inclined plain, a part of 

 which, east of the road that leads to the PuntaMogote lighthouse, is 

 known as the Campo Peralta. The beach, though composed largely of 

 sand, is strewn with pebbles of dense black or dark rock, and on the 

 plain above are many worked stones of the same material. From tliis 

 locality were collected a variety of artifacts, wliich are described by 

 Doctor Hrdli6ka and Professor Holmes. The locality is of interest, 

 because it was once the site of an indusfty in implements fasliioned 

 from the pebbles on the beach. Men lived on the gentle slope of the 

 Campo Peralta. They collected stones from the beach. They car- 

 ried them to their dwellings, possibly of a temporary nature, and 

 worked them into shape — aU witlun a distance of 200 or 300 meters. 

 It is evident that the supply of stones attracted the workers and that 

 they pitched their workshops where they could most conveniently 

 reach the strand. The conditions are local. Northward and south- 



