hkplk^ka] 



DISCOVERIES ATTRIBUTED TO EARLY MAN 



53 



The tibia, normally developed, measures at the middle of the shaft 

 2.G cm. in its antero-posterior and 1.9 cm. in its lateral diameter. 

 The corresponding average measurements of Delaware tibiae were, 

 respectively, 2.6 and 1.93 cm.^ We could hardly ask for a closer 

 resemblance. The index at middle is 73.1 in the Vero bone and 

 averages 7If.5 in the left tibiae of the Delaware, less than 1.5 points 

 difference, and much less than the individual variation in a single 

 tribe. Twelve Florida female tibia?, from various parts of the State, 

 give for the same proportions respectively 2.81, 1.97, and 69.4, di- 

 mensions also not far different, and a few individual bones match 

 the Vero tibiae almost exactly. 



The Vero tibia presents also an interesting shape of the shaft. 

 If we examine tibia? from Florida at large, we find that in the 

 majority of cases the bones are distinguished by a decidedly convex 

 inner surface, a characteristic also frequently met with among the 

 tibiae of the Algonquian tribes farther north; and it is precisely this 

 form which is found in the tibiae of Vero Skeleton I. 



To sununarize, the features of the femora and tibiae of the skeleton 

 under consideration are, according to all indications, Indian, and 

 of the type of Indians w^ho peopled the Florida peninsula and other 

 parts of the eastern coast \\^ to historic times. Should the Vero 

 skeleton be of geological antiquity, then we would have to accept the 

 view that in size and tvpe no change has taken place in the inhab- 

 itants of the region between the early Pleistocene (to which all the 

 Vero finds are referred by Hay, who rather oversupports Sellards's 

 views) and the Columbian period. This would mean new natural 

 history of man, new anthropolog}^ 



Part of a fibula present shows a weak development of the bone; 

 otherwise there is nothing exceptional. 



The part of left humerus shows that the bone was of the usual 

 plano-convex Indian type, and quite platybrachic, as usual among the 

 Indians. 



The patella is of ordinary form and, as is true of all the bones 

 of the skeleton, of moderate size. Its dimensions compared with the 

 average measurements of Eastern Algonquian female patelhe are as 

 follows: 



Measurements of Patella 



Height, maximum 



r>readth, maximum.. 

 Thickness, maximum 



Vero 

 Skeleton I 



Centimeters 

 3.8 

 4.0 

 1.7 



Miinsee 

 Females 

 (Mean) 



Centimeters 

 3.93 

 4.02 

 1.73 



1 Bull. 62, Bur. Amer. Etlin., p. 68. 



