hkdliCkaI skeletal REMAINS OF EARLY MAN 203 



were the remains of a skeleton buried in a recent epoch, the bones 

 would not be found isolated, and scattered over a large sur- 

 face." 



The human bones are said to have lost completely all their organic 

 material and are described as lustrous over a large part of their sur- 

 faces, as light, porous, and fragile, and adhering strongly to the 

 tongue. All these characteristics "denote a most remote antiquity. " 



If the human bones had been from a modern inhumation, Ame- 

 ghino argues, there would have been encountered with them bones 

 of recent animals. 



Returning once more to the stone implements (p. 501), we read 

 that, "As these instruments themselves are more crude than those 

 possessed by the Indians anterior to tlie Conquest, it must be ad- 

 mitted that they belong to an anterior epoch. This also proves that 

 the human bones belong to a geologic epoch in which the physical 

 conditions of the region (comarca) were distinct from those of the 

 present day. The level at wlucli the bones were encountered must 

 then have been the surface of tlie ground; otherwise there would not 

 remain any other explanation of the find except that of a modern 

 burial, which, as already seen, would not accord with the facts; nor 

 can it be admitted that savages armed with small fragments of "silex " 

 could have done such work for the burial of their dead." 



As to the animal bones found during the same excavation, Ame- 

 ghino says (p. 503) : 



"Some animals were represented by nearly complete skeletons, 

 but the larger part of the bones of the others were scattered without 

 any order, those of the carnivora mingled witji those of rodents or 

 edentates. The human bones were found mingled and scattered in 

 like manner without any order over the whole surface of the base of 

 the excavation, more than 30 square meters in extent, whieli natur- 

 ally suggests even a much larger area of dispersion. This is further 

 proof that the human bones were interred at the same time as the 

 bones of mammals which accompanied them." 



On page 504 the statement is made, notwithstanding the former 

 allusions to the great quantities of charcoal, that "the soil in which 

 the bones occurred was the same in hardness, composition, and 

 aspect as that found at the same level in following the barrancas of 

 the arroyo;" from which again it is deduced that the man was con- 

 temporaneous with the animals found in these barrancas. 



Later on (pp. 508-509) is mentioned a chemical analysis of the 

 bones, but, with the exception of the statement that they are "fossil" 

 and that they have "almost completely lost tlxeir organic matter" 

 (compare with previous statement), no evidence is furnished that such 

 analysis was actually made. In "fossilization," color, and other 

 characteristics the human bones are said to be exactly the same as 



