206 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [boll. 52 



majority of the larger bones were found to belong to the skeleton of an 

 old female, one of them, with some of the hand bones and foot bones, 

 belonged probably to a second subject, of taller stature. The frag- 

 ment of an iliac bone presents certain sexual and other peculiarities, 

 but nothing on which any conclusions would be based. As to the ver- 

 tebrae, Lehmann-Nitsche ''was not able to discover any osteologic 

 characteristic which might not be found in the vertebrae of contem- 

 poraneous man" (p. 241); and Leboucq makes almost the same 

 statement in regard to the bones of the hand and the foot (p. 249) : 

 ''The prehistoric bones of the hand and the foot collected at the 

 Arroyo de Frias present no marked morphologic peculiarity which 

 differentiates them from modern bones." The scaphoid, which 

 Broca pronounced very small, presents really, according to Leboucq 

 (p. 249), medium adult dimensions. The length of the second meta- 

 tarsal surpasses the average length of the same bone in females and 

 (slightly) even that in males. One of the metacarpals nearly equals 

 the general masculine average in length. 



The bones are described by Leboucq (pp. 245-246) as apparently 

 thoroughly fossilized but no chemical tests are mentioned. They 

 are dirty-gray in color, but the longer of the metacarpals, though 

 also seemingly completely fossilized, is mahogany-brown. 



Finally, in his latest publication on the subject of fossil man in 

 Argentina,* Lehmann-Nitsche refers the Arroyo de Frias find to the 

 Superior Pampean (Quaternary). 



Critical Remarks 



1. The antiquity of the human bones found at the Arroyo de Frias 

 can not be accepted as established. It rests on the statements of 

 one who at the time the discoveries were made could scarcely be 

 regarded as a well- trained and experienced geologist, and is sub- 

 stantiated l)y no pubUshed record of any scientific witness, by no 

 photograph or detailed drawings made on the spot. 



2. The data and measurements given in the accounts of the find are 

 not sufficiently precise; thus the human bones are said in one place ^ 

 to have come from the depth of 4 meters, while the lowest limit of 

 the excavation as given by Ameghino, in his figure and with his own 

 measurements, was only 3.40 meters. In another place it is said ^ 

 that the human remains were interred at a depth of more than 3 

 meters; stifi another statement* is to the effect that "The vestiges 

 of the ancient existence of man and human bones were encountered 

 in the layer before the last, at the level of the water of the arroyo 



1 Lehmann-Nitsche, R., El hombre f6sil pampeano; in Bol. Ofic. Nac. Est., La Paz, Bolivia, \i, WIO, 

 pp. 363-366. 



2 Journal de Zoologic, iv, Paris, 1875, pp. 527-528. 



3 Comptc-rendu, 3me Congr. Int. Amer., Bruxelles, 1879, p. 219. 



* Ameghino, F., Contribucidn al conocimiento de los mamiferos fdsiles, etc., 1889, p. 65. 



