hrdliCka] skeletal REMAINS OF EARLY MAN 269 



(the last-named measurement taken with the specimen laid on the 

 border of the table). The posterior facet for the calcaneus is prob- 

 ably less concave than usual in adults. The right astragalus is 

 defective and quite useless for study but was apparently similar in 

 size and form to that of the left side. 



None of the above-mentioned bones present any intravital injury 

 or disease. 



Critical Remarks 



The fundamental errors of the original description of the Siasgo 

 skeleton are shown plainly enough in the preceding pages. The age 

 of the subject was much overestimated, and through lack of com- 

 parative material, no doubt, features of the skull due to artificial 

 shaping were mistaken for natural characteristics and made the basis 

 of a new species of man. 



The remains consist of a few very ordinary, immature, and defec- 

 tive bones, which show little if any fossilization and, it is safe to 

 say, would not be recognized as exceptional if placed with a series of 

 similar remains from, for instance, the graves of Bolivian Indians. 



However, there is other good evidence that the skeleton in question 

 has no claims whatever to antiquity. On his return from the Sierra 

 Ventana Mr. Willis visited the locality of the find. He was shown 

 by the owner of the hacienda the exact spot from which the bones 

 came and which was still plainly in view. His observations are 

 embodied in the pages that follow. 



Observations on the Arroyo Siasgo Find 

 By Bailey Willis 



The Arroyo Siasgo Valley is a pecuharly broad and shallow but 

 winding hollow in the Pampa. It has been described by Amegliino 

 as a lake basin and may have been partially filled at times of excessive 

 rains, although the writer saw no shore features, as an established 

 lake would make. The valley itself is an abandoned stream channel 

 widened by wind. It lies in the east-central part of the Province of 

 Buenos Aires in that broad lowland through which the Rio Salado 

 winds. The region is one in which drainage channels are but slightly 

 developed and which has exhibited extensive flooded areas during 

 rainy years up to a recent time, when the construction of drainage 

 canals provided channels in which the waters might flow away. The 

 writer does not recall ever having seen a more perfect plain or one 

 from wliich evidences of erosion were more completely wanting. From 

 the vantage point of the railway train the plain could be scanned for 

 many leagues and exhibits everywhere the same dead level. Even 

 the long hollows, characteristic of much of the wind-sculptured sur- 

 face of the pampas, are here developed in only an insignificant degree. 



