HRDLiC'KA] SKELETAL REMAINS OF EARLY MAN 317 



Ameghino as sufficient to distinguish the formation from the Recent 

 deposits and to justif}^ placing it in the late Tertiary under the name 

 of "Inter-Ensenadean." 



A careful examination of the so-called Inter-Ensenadean at this 

 point showed that, as stated above, it consists of materials derived 

 from the recent beach, as shell fragments, and also of black earth 

 blown from the plain, where it forms the existing accumulation of 

 soil. The presence of these modern materials in the formation a]i- 

 pears to preclude any ancient date of deposition. Since lime is 

 present in abundance in the ground waters, in the soil, and as shells 

 in the material itself, it is naturally taken in solution and deposited 

 on evai)oration by the waters that rise and fall in the coastal plain. 

 Little friable concretions of lime occur even in the deposits whose 

 modern age is not questioned, and the difference between them and 

 the thin sheets whicii occur in the so-called Inter-Ensenadean is 

 rather one of conditions of deposition than of age. Still it is not 

 questioned that the Inter-Ensenadean is slightly older than the 

 drifting sand, though undoubtedly Recent. 



The skeleton of a man was dug up in this superficial formation 

 about 1 km. northeast of the Necochea Hotel, about 300 m. from the 

 sea and between two large sand dunes. The material in which the 

 bones were found was an incoherent brown sand, part of the forma- 

 tion over which the dunes are moving. Its surface was covered with 

 loose pebbles of tosca and many chipped stones. The exact point 

 from which the skeleton had been taken was indicated by Senor 

 Parodi, and the hole, which had filled up with sand, was carefully 

 reexcavated by Ilrdlicka down to the depth and far beyond the limits 

 of the original excavation. The undisturbed material was distin- 

 guished from that which had blown into the hole, by decidedly greater 

 compactness. The opening was 1.1 m. long and 85 cm. wide and had 

 a maximum depth of 24 cm. As reexcavated the hole is shown in 

 plate 46. 



The more compact sand in which the skeleton occiu-red appears to 

 belong to that formation which Ameghino styles Inter-Ensenadean 

 and regards as Tertiary, whereas the writer looks on it as a modern 

 shore formation slightly older than the dune sands that are drifting 

 across it. Precisely similar deposits were seen in process of formation 

 at Miramar, as may be noted by referring to the description of that 

 locality. But the age of the formation is of no importance in connec- 

 tion with the age of the bones, for the shallowness of the hole and the 

 lay of the bones, as described by Senor Parodi to Ilrdlicka and the 

 writer, clearly showed that the body had been buried. In conse- 

 quence, it was even younger than the sand formation. 



