320 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 51i 



what he remembered having heard and furnished him with a sketch 

 of the geologic formation as seen in the excavations for the docks, 

 without locating the specimen. The excavations in Dry Dock No. 1 

 were never earned beneath the tosca except in the rudder-pit. 



Mr. Junor states that he did not see the find, but was told of it 

 the next day, or perhaps the second day after, by the foreman, Mr. 

 Clark. No effort was made by Mr. Junor to examine the hole from 

 which the bones came or to find or collect other pieces, for this might 

 have resulted in delaying the work. He had an impression that 

 there were five or six skulls discovered and that the workmen pla3'ed 

 hochas^ with them, thus breaking them into fragments, but this 

 seems to have been an error, as will appear later. The foreman 

 brought Mr. Junor two pieces of the skull, and the latter saved them 

 because they were said to have come from beneath the tosca, giving 

 them later to the Museo Nacional. He had not been asked before 

 by any one for details concerning the finds and is not responsible for 

 any illustrations that may have appeared in print. No notice was 

 taken for many years of the pieces he donated until they were taken 

 up recently b}^ Professor Ameghino. He has seen the specimen 

 since — now only one piece, probably made by joining the two frag- 

 ments; there is no doubt that the specimen is the same he donated. 



As to the place from which the bones came, he remembers having 

 been informed that the workmen had gotten through the floor of 

 the dock into a sort of quicksand when the bones were encountered. 

 Owing to this quicksand, the rudder-pit had to be concreted after- 

 ward to prevent entrance into the dock of water and sand. The 

 bones must have been just beneath the tosca, for a small quantity 

 of tosca was adhering to them. No animal bones were found in tlie 

 pit or in this dock, and Mr. Junor has no recollection that any other 

 human bones came to sight. He did not examine the site from 

 which the skull fragments given him were supposed to have come. 

 No inquiries were made of the laborers. 



Mr. Clark states in his letter that the skull "was found at the 

 commencement of the Rudder Pit at dock bottom"; he "is quite 

 sure the skull was found at the Rudder Pit and under tosca"; and 

 "it was the only one found in that locality, but there was another 

 skull found in the sand at the entrance to Dock No. 4," which dis- 

 appeared without his knowing what became of it. Further, he does 

 not remember whether or not there were any loose bones. 



Mr. Junor adds the following note : 



"Clark told me the men had been playing 'bochas' with the skull; 

 evidently they had only been tossing the one skull backward and 



1 A game played extensively in Argentina with wooden balls, which are rolled or thrown to strike and 

 group with others. 



