IIUDLiC'KA] 



SKELETAL REMAINS OF EAELY MAN 



227 



mineral waters containing much lime in solution, as those of 

 Carlsbad. . . . 



"Against the opinion which attributes the skull to loess, may be 

 advanced, as proof, the lack of data regarding the find, as well as the 

 relatively satisfactory preservation of the osseous substance; but in 

 reality the bone has been protected by the calcareous envelope which 

 covered it.['] The chocolate-colored stains visible on some parts of 

 the lamina interna suggest exactly the color of the ancient Patagonian 



Fig. 45. Skull of Arrecifes, norma lateralis. (After Lehmann-Nitsche.) 



skulls from the Rio Negro, of which an important series exists in the 

 Museo de la Plata, the 'Quaternary' age of which is affirmed only 

 by Ameghino.p] . . . 



"However tliis may be, I consider the skull, without hesitation, 

 very ancient, without venturing to call it absolutely fossil, and I 

 beheve that the term subfossil would well express the idea of its great 

 age." 



[' Experience with Indian skeletal material from limestone caves in California has been quite to the con- 

 trary, bones or parts of bones coated with or embedded in stalagmitic deposits showing advanced changes; 

 there is marked loss in organic matter, the bones are yellowish-white to white in color, and where there is 

 no interstitial infiltration of lime, they are fragile.] 



[2 This statement is unjust to Ameghino who. at the place indicated, states with emphasis that Pampean 

 deposits are absent from the entire lower part of the valley of the Rio Negro and that the skull in question 

 (Moreno's collection) is unquestionably Post-Pampean (see also p. 196 of this rejwrt). As to the stains, such 

 disseminated black or brown spots are very common on bones and usually are devoid of all significance as 

 to the age of the specimen.] 



