164 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 52 



exhumed bones of this animal belonged to individuals descended 

 from the horse introduced by the Portuguese scarcely 100 years ago. 

 The relations under which these bones were found, with their state 

 of decomposition, prove incontestably a more remote age." 



Ruminants were represented by four species, of which three, 

 those of deer, conformed with the living species. The remains of 

 two of these were found in the red clay and also in its more recent 

 modifications. They were found also, apparentl}^ removed from 

 their original bed, in the pool and in the earth wliich carpeted the 

 cave. The third species, which does not appear at present in the 

 countrj'', existed in the clay and also in the pool as well as in the floor 

 deposits. The fourth species was the llama, not now known in Bra- 

 zil. Its bones lay in the two most ancient modifications of the clay. 



In addition to the above there were bones of several species still 

 living and some already extinct, of armadillos and other edentates, and 

 of numerous birds, reptiles, and fishes. Some of these bones were 

 still in a relatively fresh state, while others, of both living and extinct 

 species, were more or less petrified. The bones of the edentates were 

 encountered in the modified clay, as well as in the earth at the bottom 

 of the pool and on the floor of the cave. The remains of the bii'ds, 

 reptiles, and fishes existed only in the two deposits last-mentioned. 



In subsequent parts of his letter Lund considers the agency of 

 water in producing the conditions found in the cave, and tlie various 

 possible modes of introducing the animal remains into tlie cavern. 

 He then returns again to the human bones, with the following notes: 



"I have already remarked that the skeletal remains of man which 

 were found in the cave belonged to individuals ranging in age from 

 the unborn to those of decrepit old age. The proportion of the latter 

 was very considerable. There were a number of lower j aws wliich were 

 not only without the teeth, but wliich presented such an absorption 

 of the bone that they resembled a bone lamina of only a few lines in 

 thickness. It is therefore probable that these skeletons belonged to 

 decrepit individuals who had died of old age and were thrown into 

 this cave, which thus appears to have served as a place of sepulture. 

 A similar explanation is apphcable to the young individuals, whose 

 mortality as well known is greatest during the early j^ears. . . . 

 A peculiarity which I discovered in some of the skulls warrants me, it 

 seems, in believing that the death of several of the individuals buried 

 in this cave did not result from natural causes. In several of the skulls 

 I discovered a hole in one of the temples, of a regular oblong form, the 

 long axis of which was parallel with the long axis of the head. This 

 hole was found to be of the same size and same form in all the skulls. 

 . . . It seems to me most likely that this hole in the temple is the 

 result of external ^^olence which caused the death of the individual. 

 It should still further be remarked that the outline and size of the 



