180 BUKEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 52 



characteristics of the bones are concerned, the data evidently cor- 

 respond to rather low-grade ore. In fact, owing to differences in 

 results reached by the different observers (the average breadth of the 

 skulls being given, for instance, as 13.25 cm. by one, and as but 

 13.0 cm. by another, author), with the paucity of records on skeletal 

 parts other than the skulls, the data on the Lagoa Santa material 

 suggest the need of a thorough restudy of the whole collection, by 

 students employing well-tested, modem instruments and approved 

 methods. 



The presence of the remains in caves is not of particular signifi- 

 cance. Wherever caves were convenient, the American aborigines, as 

 other primitive peoples, utilized them for habitation, shelter, storage, 

 ceremonies, and burial. The cliff-dwellers of the southwestern United 

 States, for example, made use of the caves and shelters of that region 

 for all these purposes, and the Tarahumare and other tribes of Mexico 

 do likewise at the present day. 



The presence in the cave of Sumidouro of parts of the skeletons of 

 upwards of 30 individuals of all ages, with the bones of some still in 

 their natural associations, is sufhcient evidence of the fact that the 

 cave served as a place of burial. Whether the bodies were interred 

 in the accumulations in the cave or were simply deposited on the 

 floor is not apparent. It is well known that both methods have 

 been employed even by a single people. 



The absence from the Sumidouro cave of objects of ornament and 

 of implements and utensils, with the exception of one niuUer, is a 

 fact of secondary importance only, having little bearing on the prob- 

 lems of race antiquity. Objects of wood, fabrics, feathers, and other 

 perishable articles decay rapidly where water has free access to them, 

 or they may be carried away by running water. Many burials in 

 caves, as most of those of late prehistoric times in Chihuahua, a 

 number of which were explored by the writer, are lacking in objects 

 of art except remnants of costunxes and wrappings of the body. 



The association in a single cave of human remains with bones of 

 extinct animals can not be regarded as establishing b}^ itself con- 

 temporaneity of the race and the animal species to which the bones 

 belong. The acceptance of the theory of such contemporaneity 

 requires proofs that both the animal and the human bones were in 

 the cave before the extinction of the si)ecies represented by the 

 former. On this point there is no satisfactory evidence in the present 

 case. No part of the cave showed ancient deposits only; the red 

 clay, which seemed to be the oldest and least disturbed sediment, 

 contained on the one hand no bones of man, and on the other held 

 bones of deer belonging to species still living. The extinct forms 

 were represented by a few bones only, and in som.e instances, as that of 

 the monkey, only by a piece of a single bone; and the fossil animal 



