210 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 52 



desplayada with his companion and locating some bones of fossil 

 animals, ''perceived, in the wall of a gully which was about 3 meters 

 deep, a portion of a skull, which protruded slightly from the loess. 

 Don Jose thought that the skull was that of an Indian, but I replied 

 that more probably we were confronted with the results of some crime, 

 because the Indians, not possessing utensils for digging, contented 

 themselves with covering their dead with the little earth that they 

 were able to scrape together, while this skeleton was interred at an 

 unusual depth. The idea that these remains might belong to a man 

 contemporary with the Ghjptodon never even occurred to me. I did 

 not examine the bones closely and had no intention of exhuming them. 

 But as Mayorotti wanted to disinter the skeleton and take it home, I 

 helped him in the work. The skeleton occupied a sitting posture, 

 with the legs extended, the head slightly inclined forward. All the 

 bones existed in their normal relations, as in life. We paid attention 

 to this because I suspected a crime, and we also searched with care 

 for any objects that might be present and that might decide whether 

 the remains were those of a Christian or an Indian, but we found 

 absolutely nothing. As to the form of the skull, which, besides, fell 

 into a great number of pieces, I have no recollection. . . . About 

 one year later I saw in the garden of ]\Iayorotti some fragments of 

 fossil bones and, on asking him where these bones were from, he 

 responded that they belonged to the human skeleton which we dug 

 out near Saladero; the bones were exposed to the sun and rain for the 

 purpose of getting them bleached and they fell to pieces. 



''In the interval I had made other excavations, wliich resulted in 

 the discovery of a flint weapon {silex-waff'e) on the site of the remains 

 of a Scclidotherium. ['1 This find puzzled me considerably. Senor 

 Pedro Pico, to whom I communicated my finds, told me it was not 

 the first time that such a case had presented itself, for another person 

 had, in his knowledge, found a very similar implement in the midst 

 of the remains of the Machaerodus. [■] I left the implement with 

 Senor Pico. At the same time I learned also that Seguin had found 

 long before, on the borders of Rio Carcarana, fossil human bones 

 mingled with the bones of Ursus bonaercnsis. These circumstances 

 influenced me to gather the bones which still remained from the 

 skeleton of Saladero, for the purpose of sending them to H. Bur- 

 meister at Buenos Aires. 



''I had completely forgotten my discovery of the fossil human 

 remains of Saladero when, in 1881, I brought to Burmeister for 

 examination the lower jaw of the skull of Fontezuelas. Burmeister 



[' On Iho banks of the Arroyo Zanjon not far from I'ergainino; the object, apparently an arrow point, now 

 no more to be found, Is said by Roth to have lain under one of the thigh bones of the animal. (Lehmann- 

 Nitschc, Nouvclles recherches, etc., p. 482, footnote.)] 



P According to Lehmann-Nitsche, this was the arrow point found by the Breton brothers. Later the 

 find was discredited.] 



