hrdliOka] skeletal REMAIISrS OF EARLY MAN 225 



fully explained, they are not incompatible with the recent age of the 

 human remains; and the skeletal parts, when considered in the light 

 of our present knowledge, speak so strongly for their Indian and 

 modern origin that, unless additional proofs tending to establish the 

 contrary are supplied, they can not but be so regarded. 



THE ARRECIFES SKULL 

 Historical Remarks and Earlier Reports 



The first notice of the Arrecifes skull is found in Ameghino's work 

 on the fossil mammals of Argentina.^ After making certain remarks 

 concerning the Fontezuelas skeleton, he says: 



"This region of the Rio de Arrecifes appears to have been at that 

 epoch more populous or more suitable for man's habitation than 

 the rest of the province, for, while writing these lines, I have received 

 notice of the discovery of a human skuU, evidently fossil, more or 

 less under the same conditions as the preceding [Fontezuelas], at the 

 distance of about 4 leagues from the town of Arrecifes, near the 

 small Arroyo de Merlo and at a short distance from the channel of the 

 Rio Arrecifes, on a declivity of the Pampean terrane denuded by the 

 waters. I have not as yet seen the locality, but the aspect of the 

 skull and its state of preservation show plainly that it proceeds from 

 the red Pampean ground." 



On page 85 of the same work we read the following additional 

 remarks in regard to the specimen: "The skull, of which I have two 

 photographs, was recently found in the same northern region of the 

 province [as the skull of "Pontimelo"]. It is evidently of a distinct 

 race, [^] dolichocephalic, with an index that should be in the proximity 

 of 75, and also hipsistenocephalic, but of narrow and very low front, 

 very pronounced supraorbital arches, and strong temporal crests." 



And without further data or consideration the skull is accepted as 

 representing a variety of ancient man, for the following lines read: 

 "We hold, then, the proof that during the formation of the Inferior 

 [probably should read "Superior" — ^A. H.] Pampean, the province 

 of Buenos Aires was inhabited in the same regions, although we have 

 no evidence that it was absolutely synchronically, by two distinct 

 human races, one dolichocephalic and with marked characteristics of 

 inferiority in the skull; the other brachycephalic. . . . 



"The representatives of both races were hipsistenocephalic and 

 of very small stature." 



No other account of the discovery has ever been published by 

 Ameghmo. But in 1906, in his work on the sedimentary formations,^ 



1 Contribucion al conocimiento de los mamiferos f6siles, etc., 1889, pp. 67, 85. 

 - From that represented b.v the Arroyo de Frias, Samborombi^n, and Fontezuelas skulls. — A. H. 

 3 Les formations sedimentaires, etc.; in Anal. Mus. Nac. Buenos Aires, xv (ser. ni, t. vui), 1900, pp. 

 446-447. 



21535°— Bull. 52—12 15 



