50 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bdll. 66 



covered. The tooth was found near Skeleton II, while the other 

 parts, one a toe hone of an adult and the other a tooth of a small 

 child, came from the northern bank nearly opposite, where they lay 

 " at the contact line between strata Nos. 3 and 2," at a distance of 10 

 yards from each other. About these bones very little can be said, for 

 we do not know whether they represent skeletons the other parts of 

 which have been removed by the dredges, or whether these other parts 

 are still in the formation. Individual small bones and teeth, besides, 

 are easily displaced and carried about. The only thing they indi- 

 cate is that in the same vicinity there were probably burials that 

 were not discovered. All three specimens are in perfect condition, a 

 fact which precludes the possibility of exposure for any length of 

 time on the surface. Their position can hardly be explained, as was 

 attempted by Dr. Sellards with Skeleton II, on the assumption that 

 they have all been washed out from layer 2. If not thus explained, 

 however, and if all the human bones at Vero are accidental inclosures, 

 as claimed by Dr. Sellards, then we are confronted with the most 

 miraculous occurrence — the superposition in a little wild spot of the 

 far-away wide inhospitable flats of eastern Florida of several human 

 skeletons in different geological horizons. 



The demonstration of the antiquity of the human remains at Vero is 

 verily a task of peculiar difficulties and discouraging complications 

 for those who are responsible for bringing these remains into the 

 forum of scientific discussion. 



The Skeletal Eemains 



In examining and trjdng to identify racially human skeletal re- 

 mains, we may well bear in mind that such remains of whatsoever 

 provenance are bound to show more or less of individual peculiarities 

 or aberrations from the average of the type to which they belong; 

 and that the more minute our examinations the more numerous 

 wdll such aberrations appear. Such individual fluctuations or pecu- 

 liarities, however, have but little weight. Each bone of the skeleton 

 has its own partially correlated and partially independent range of 

 variation, which extends normally over hundreds of specimens, hun- 

 dreds of individuals. Some of these variations are reversive, some 

 progressive, while still others, and they are perhaps in the majority, 

 are more or less incidental and without much meaning. Hence, if 

 we consider any given skeleton, any given bone, we are bound to 

 find in it, on detailed scrutiny, various exceptional features, to which 

 the less experienced might readily assign undue significance. The 

 duty of the anatomist is to distinguish and rely only on those sub- 

 stantial characters which have a real value for racial determination. 

 This will be kept in view in the following description of the' Vero 

 skeletons. 



