156 BTTREATT OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 52 



These two communications repeat in the main what has already 

 been cited, but there are also several additional statements. 



In the earlier letter Lund states that notwithstanding the excellent 

 opportunities he had to examine into the question of the contempo- 

 raneity of man in Brazil with the extinct species of mammals, he had 

 not yet arrived at a definite conclusion, although he had made every 

 effort to do so. He had explored up to that time nearly 200 caves 

 and the number of mammal species alone which were found amounted 

 to 115, of which only 88 are still living in the region. 



The bad condition in which most of the cave bones of animals were 

 found and the nature of the mutilations they showed convinced Lund 

 that in the majority of cases their presence was due to savage beasts, 

 which had the habit of bringing their victims or parts of them to 

 their dens in the caves where the flesh was devoured. 



"But," Lund continues, "among so large a quantity of bones, 

 which indicate the existence of an order of things altogether different 

 from that which exists to-day, I have never encountered the slightest 

 traces of man. Yet, at an epoch when ferocious animals, among 

 which some gigantic forms (e. g., Smilodon populator) abounded in 

 this country, why should man, who is so feeble in contest with such 

 formidable animals, have escaped the fate which overtook numerous 

 victims many times stronger than himself?" This consitleration, he 

 was led to believe, settled negatively the question of man's contempo- 

 raneity with these animals, when, after six years of fruitless search, he 

 discovered cave remains of human beings "which may possibly lead 

 to a contrary solution of the question." 



"I found these human remains, " he says, "in a cave mixed wdth the 

 bones of various animals of species entirely extinct {Platyonyx Buck- 

 landii, Chlamydotherium Humholdtii, C. majus, Dasypus sulcatus, Hy- 

 drochserus sulcidens, etc.), a circumstance sufficient to call attention 

 in the highest degree to the interesting relics. Moreover, they pre- 

 sented all the physical characteristics of fossil bones. They were in 

 part petrified, in part impregnated with ferruginous particles, which 

 gave to some of them a metallic luster, akin to that of bronze, as well 

 as extraordinary weight. There could then be no doubt as to their 

 great age. But in view of the fact that the cave that contained the 

 bones lay at the border of a lake, the water of wliich entered it annually 

 during the rainy season, no definite conclusion can be reached as to 

 whether the individuals to whom they belonged were or were not 

 contemporaneous with the extinct species of animals with which 

 their bones occurred. In consequence of this circumstance, successive 

 introductions of animal remains into the cavern could have taken 

 place and the bones of later introduction could have become mixed 

 with those alread}^ deposited. This, it was demonstrated, had 

 actually taken place, for among the bones of the extinct species were 



