316 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 52 



Judging by the strength of the bones, they belonged probably to a 

 male skeleton. Anatomically they offer but little requiring description. 



The part of the left humerus is without either extremity. As with 

 all the other pieces, it has an entirely ordinary modern human aspect. 

 It was of moderate length as well as strength ; the maximum and 

 minimum diameters near the middle are 2.0 by 1.75 cm., but both 

 have been diminished tlirough erosion of the surface. The deltoid 

 tuberosity and spiral groove are well marked. The shape of the shaft 

 at the middle was nearly prismatic. 



The upper portion of the left femur shows marked platymery (3.3 by 

 2.15 mm., index 65.1), which brings it in close relation with the 

 east Ai'gentine Indian femora. It does not have a third trochanter. 



Portions of an ulna, fibula, pelvis, and the skull present no features 

 worthy of special mention. 



All that can be said in conclusion about this skeleton is that 

 neither the position of the bones nor any of their features justify 

 an assumption of antiquity, nor will a new species of man be formed 

 on their basis. 



Geologic Notes on the Necochea Region 



By Bailey Wilus 



the necochea find 



At Necochea the plain approaches the sea with but slight altitude, 

 and abreast of the town the shore is a beach surmounted by very low 

 bluffs, behind which is a broad belt of drifting sand that locally rises 

 into dunes as much as 10 m. high. An excavation in the town, a kilo- 

 meter more or less from the sea, exhibits a section of black soil 70 cm. 

 thick resting in sharply-defined contact upon laminated secondary 

 limestone or tosca 2 m. thick. The upper layers of the limestone, 

 although distinct from the black earth, enclose lenticular layers of it. 

 On approaching the coast, one recognizes at once the drifting sands 

 which the southerly wind blows along the shore from the beach. 

 Beneath the layer of moving sand there is a somewhat firmer deposit 

 of mingled sand and fine black earth and a more indurated formation, 

 neither of which appears to contain any secondary limestone, and also 

 a more indurated formation which does contain secondary limestone 

 in very thin layers and in sheets filling sun-cracks. The last-named 

 deposit varies in constitution from a sandy coquina to fine black loess, 

 being thus composed of materials blown from the beach mingled with 

 those blown from the plain. The surface is hard enough to retain the 

 forms sculptured by wind and drifting sand and the material includes 

 specks of black sand. These two characteristics, together with the 

 occurrence of the secondary limestone or tosca, are regarded by 



