226 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bcll. 52 



this author gives anotlier illustration of the Arrecifes skull, marking it 

 as ''Inferior Quaternary," and offers the following remarks (p. 447), 

 which ill agree with those quoted in the preceding lines: ''The man 

 of the Quaternary epoch [fig. 344 = the skull] does not appear to 

 differ from that of the present period, but his remains are very inter- 

 esting because they seem to indicate that he is the result of an evolu- 

 tion effected on this continent." 



A few details concerning the find, based on personal information 

 obtained from Ameghino, were published in 1907, with a description 

 of the skull, by Lehmann-Nitsche.^ The skull was found by ^M. Mon- 

 guillot, a preparator formerly attached to the Museo Xacional, in 

 the locality mentioned above, "in terrane belonging to the Pam- 

 pean formation, which was left exposed by water." Ameghino 

 acknowledged he "did not know the locality; but the aspect of the 

 skull, its state of preservation, and the information given by the 

 preparator, proved to him conclusively that the specimen came from 

 the upper layers of the Superior Pampean formation." 



The above is absolutely all that has been reported of this discovery, 

 and the case must be regarded as one of the most striking illustra- 

 tions of the poor foundations on which the structure of the theory 

 of ancient man in South America is built. 



The skull is now the property of the Museo de la Facultad de 

 FHosofia y Letras, Buenos Aires, where it was examined by Lehmann- 

 Nitsche and also by the writer, thanks to the courtesy of Senor Juan 

 Ambrosetti, director of the museum (fig. 45). 



Lehmann-Nitsche's principal remarks and conclusions in regard 

 to the specimens are as follows (p. 299 et seq.) : 



"As to the question whether the cranium really is derived from 

 the Upper Pampean loess, it would be equally possible to sustain that 

 opinion or oppose it. 



"In favor of the antiquity of the specimen is the circumstance 

 that the parts of the bone which have been freed from calcareous 

 incrustation adhere strongly to the tongue; they have all the aspect 

 of fossility, a yellowish- white color, fragile structure, etc. Besides 

 that, the ventral surface of the skuU is covered by a very irregular 

 granular layer of strongh^ effervescent carbonate of lime. Similar 

 calcareous covering over the external surface reaches in some spots 

 a thickness of more than 1 millimeter, and is composed of at least 

 three perfectly distinct layers. This differs from the known in- 

 crustations which cover animal bones from the Pampean formation 

 and resembles the stalactite that forms on objects plunged into 



1 Nouvelles recherches. etc., pp. 29S-320: also the somewhat earlier publication on the same subject 

 in the Eciista dc la Universidad de Buenos Aires, vin. 1907, reprint, pp. 1—16. The two accounts ditTer in a 

 number of secondary particulars. All quotations and references that follow are from the Nouvelles 

 recherches, etc. 



