oe ee 
HRDLICKA] SKELETAL REMAINS 57 
Mr. Phalen’s figures indicate that, except as regards oxide of alu- 
minum, both the Osprey skull and the North Osprey bones show 
greater alteration in their inorganic constituents than do the bones 
of the fossil mastodon. 
The Osprey skull presents a marked diminution of the phosphoric 
acid—that is, the phosphates—as well as of oxide of lime, and a pro- 
nounced increase of silica and especially of iron. It is plain that a 
portion of the phosphates and calcium compounds have been replaced 
by silica and iron, and in that degree the bone is a fossil. 
The North Osprey bones show a somewhat smaller loss of their 
original inorganic constituents than the Osprey specimen and a cor- 
respondingly smaller gain of iron; but the increase in silica is about 
the same as in that skull, and there is present a considerable portion 
of oxide of aluminum, absent from the Osprey cranium. The bones 
are therefore to be looked on as being slightly less fossilized than the 
Osprey skull and as fossilized in a different manner. 
The chemical determinations accordingly leave no doubt that the 
bones in question are fossilized in a considerable degree, a condition 
which has been very generally regarded as an important indication 
of antiquity. 
Puysicat CHARACTERS 
The Osprey skull (plate v1, @) was thus reported by Leidy:¢ 
The specimen consists of the base of a skull, the vault broken off and lost, 
but retaining part of the face and a fragment of the mandible. The alveolar 
portions of the jaws and teeth are also absent. The fossil beneath is embedded 
in a mass of hard bog ore, while the bottom of the cranial cavity is occupied by 
fine, coherent, siliceous sand. 
The fossil skull itself is converted into limonite, and the portions where 
exposed are well preserved and not in the slightest degree eroded or water- 
worn. The specimen indicates a well-proportioned ovoid skull, and closely 
approximates in shape an ordinary prepared French skull, such as the writer 
has lying at the side of the fossil. The forehead and contiguous portions of 
the face accord with the usual condition in a white man’s skull. The super- 
ciliary ridges are but moderately produced and the nasal bones are large and 
prominent. The occiput has the usual appearance, while its muscular markings 
are not more developed than commonly. Comparative measurements of the 
fossil with a French skull are as follows: 
Fossil French 
skull skull 
Glabella to occipital protuberance________---_---__-_____- 170 mm. 178 mm. 
iIBreadchuaboverjihe: auditory meatic- 282 sla ss eee 131 mm. 132 mm. 
Breadth of forehead at the temporal ridges___-____-__-___~- 102 mm. 104 mm. 
To the abowe description may be added the following: The speci- 
men is a small adult or nearly adult and apparently masculine cra- 
@Notice of Some Fossil Human Bones, by Prof. Joseph Leidy, Jransactions of the 
Wagner Free Institute of Science, 11, 11-12, Philadelphia, 1889. 
