202 BTJEEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bdll. 52 



previously made assertions and supplements the arguments for the 

 antiquity of the human bones. 



The first interesting detail mentioned (pp. 486-489) is that relating 

 to the presence of a large quantity of charcoal, found with and above 

 the human bones. This charcoal extended from the top of stratum 

 numbered 9 by Ameghino, slightly more than 6 feet (2.15 meters) 

 from the surface, downward to the bottom of the excavation. The 

 quantity increased with the depth of the excavation. And ''on pen- 

 etrating into the layer No. 9," Ameghino proceeds, "I encountered, 

 mingled with the carbon and the bones of different animals, various 

 human bones. Evidently I have come across the remains of the 

 fossil man of Argentina; the man whose existence has already been 

 revealed to me by striated bones and worked stones. 

 "The human bones in layer 9 were mingled with bones of different 

 animals, worked flint, fragments of burnt bones, bones broken or 

 perforated, others with incisions, etc., baked earth, and char- 

 coal. . . . The vegetable carbon was so abundant that I cal- 

 culated it to constitute at this point a fmirth part of the total 

 mass of stratum No. 9." 



The carlion held, liesides tlie liuman and broken animal bones, a 

 quantity of fragments of ostrich eggs and some fragments of baked 

 earth, also a piece of a burned scale of Hoplophorus. Ameghino 

 especially advances this association as evidence of contemporaneity 

 of man with that animal: "This fragment is of exceptional impor- 

 tance and offers irrefutable proof of the coexistence of man with the 

 Hoplophorus." 



The stone implements found in the same mass showed also traces 

 of the action of fire. As to the nature of these worked stones, one 

 is a quartzite implement of dark-yellow color, worked crudely on one 

 surface only. The second specimen is a leaf or flake of "silex," 

 prismatic in section; its inferior surface is smooth and concave. 

 The third specimen is a small point of "silex," prismatic in section; 

 its inferior surface is smooth and concave; it served probably as an 

 arrow point. The fourth is equally of "silex;" judging by the 

 illustration, this resembles a scraper; it is worked on one surface 

 only. 



The human bones (p. 496) "were found at the mean depth of 3 m.; 

 of this only 50 cm., represented by layers Nos. 3 and 4, belong to the 

 vegetal soil. " . . . 



"The soil could not have been moved [p. 498], because I did not 

 obtain these bones on the sm^face of the ground, but interred at a con- 

 siderable depth and at a lower level even than that of the bed of the 

 Arroyo." 



The fossil man of Mercedes, according to Ameghino, could not 

 have been buried where he was found, because (p. 499), "If these 



