162 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 52 



they could have been taken for copies of bones m metal rather than 

 for veritable bones themselves. 



''The different classes of animals to which the bones found in the 

 cave belong, are as follows: 



"Man. — The human bones belonged to at least 30 individuals of 

 different ages, from the newborn to the decrepit aged. They were 

 for the most part broken, but the quality of the fractured surfaces 

 indicates, in the majority of cases, that the injury took place after 

 the bone had become fragile through advanced state of decomposi- 

 tion. . . . The massive blocks of stone, among which a large 

 part of these bones were scattered, are sufhcient witnesses of the 

 great changes which the cave has suffered since the bones were 

 introduced. 



''The human bones were found scattered pellmell, without any 

 order; some of them, nevertheless, formed an exception to the rule, 

 presenting still their natural relations with the adjacent bones, 

 which seems to indicate that they were originally deposited m the 

 cave with their adhering soft parts. However, the large accumula- 

 tions of human bones which were found at some points proved that 

 these were removed from their original position and that they had 

 been carried by water to the spots where encountered. The majority 

 of the skulls were also heaped separately, while another pile was 

 formed of small bones, as those of the fingers, toes, and the con- 

 stituents of the carpus and tarsus. 



' 'A number of small human bones appeared also in the uppermost 

 portions of the black earth; these were distinguished by a reddish- 

 brown color, which penetrated the bone more or less and was some- 

 times communicated to the entire specimen. They were entirely 

 calcareous and more or less petrified, the measure of their red color 

 corresponding to these changes. There were only a few human 

 bones in the sediment of the pool. The largest number was found 

 in the gray or yellowish clay, in its softer as well as indurated parts. 

 Some of them existed also in the yellowish clay \vith blackish patches. 

 In the indurated clay, they formed part of a sort of bony breccia of 

 great hardness similar to that in which appears here the oldest debris 

 of mammals of extinct species. 



"The human remains had all the characteristics of fossil bones: 

 the interior was of pure white ; the surface was stained black by fer- 

 ruginous substances. In those that had been broken there was as 

 much of this black stain in the interior as on the exterior. They 

 adhered strongly to the tongue; exposed to fire or laid on hot coals, 

 they did not turn black and gave no odor; in dilute nitric acid they 

 dissolved completely in a few minutes, with strong ebullition. They 

 were in part petrified." 



Mammals, — Among these remains was a piece of the femur of a 

 species of extinct monkey. There were also a great quantity of 



