HRDLK^KA] SKELETAL REMAINS OF EARLY MAN 157 



encountered others of animals whose species are still living. These 

 latter showed unequal states of preservation, according to their age, 

 some of them hardly differing from fresh bones, while others approxi- 

 mated the submetallic state previously referred to; the majority, 

 however, showed alterations intermediate between these two ex- 

 tremes. A similar difference, but less considerable, was also noted 

 in the human bones, proving undeniably the inequalities in their ages; 

 but all presented sufficient alteration in composition or texture to 

 indicate a considerable antiquity, so that, should they lose the right 

 to serve as evidence of the coexistence of man with the great 

 extinct species of terrestrial mammals, they would still retain sufh- 

 cient interest from the latter point of view. . . . 



"The researches of the European naturalists have demonstrated 

 that none of the great species of terrestrial mammals whose bones are 

 found in true fossil state have lived in historic times and that conse- 

 quently the date of their extinction is further back than 3,000 years. 

 Applying these results to the extinct species of Brazil, the bones of 

 which present the same state of preservation as those of the extinct 

 forms in Europe, and attributing to those human bones, which are 

 found in an analogous state of conservation, corresponding antiquity, 

 we obtain for these human remains an age of 30 centuries and more. 

 As, however, the process of petrifaction is one of those that has been 

 least studied, principally in relation to the time required for its con- 

 summation, and as, on the other hand, that time varies according to 

 more or less favorable circumstances, we can not risk on this basis 

 any more than vague approximations. Be it as it may, there will 

 always remain for these human bones a very considerable antiquity, 

 which places them far back of the epoch of discovery of this part 

 of the world, as well as beyond all the direct documents which we 

 possess on the existence of man, considering that thus far there have 

 been found in no other part of the world human bones in a state of 

 petrifaction. 



"It is then proved by these evidences, in the first place, that the 

 population of Brazil is derived from very remote times and undoubt- 

 edly anterior to the historic period. 



' ' Naturally the question then presents itself. Who were these most 

 ancient inhabitants of Brazil ? Of what race were they ? What was 

 their mode of life and their intellectual status ? 



"Fortunately the answers to these questions are less difficult and 

 less uncertain than those relating to the antiquity of the bones. 

 Having found a number of more or less complete skulls, I can fix the 

 place which the individuals to w^hom they belonged should occupy 

 in anthropology. The sloping forehead, the prominence of the zygo- 

 matic bones, the facial angle, the form of the jaws and orbits, all 

 assign these skulls a place among the most characteristic of the 



