48 ALES HKDLICKA 



fresh-water stream. To the anthropologist the various finds • 

 strongly suggest an ordinary "station," or inhabited site, with 

 burials of probably prehistoric, but not necessarily very ancient, 

 man, whose culture horizon corresponded to that of the ordinary 

 American aborigines of the eastern and southeastern states. 



The two human skeletons occurred at nearly the same depth, 

 which would be about that of a common Indian burial. The bones 

 of the one were in close and natural association; those of the other, 

 buried in or just below the unstable muck, though dissociated, yet 

 remained fairly well aggregated, preserving some original relations. 

 The condition of these remains, contrasted with that of the animal 

 fossils with which they were associated, is instructive. The num- 

 ber of individual fossil animal specimens recovered by the local 

 explorers, Dr. Sellard's party, and the visiting scientists would 

 doubtless reach several thousands, and they were with a few 

 exceptions isolated bones or teeth or mere fragments, many of 

 which were hardly worth collecting. 



The occurrence of isolated fossil animal bones or fragments in 

 contact with, or even above, the human skeleton would have no 

 significance. In digging a grave the earth thrown out might well 

 contain fossils even of considerable size, which, after the body was 

 introduced, would be thrown in about or above it. 



The apparently undisturbed condition of the partial and 

 irregular sandy layers which occur in the muck where skeleton 

 No. II was discovered could hardly be regarded as sufficient proof 

 that the bones were not introduced from above. The muck and 

 sand thrown in over a body would tend in the course of time so 

 completely to assume the appearance and characteristics of the 

 original deposits that distinction between the two would be quite 

 impossible. Very good examples of restratification and striation 

 are seen at Vero in the accumulations thrown out from the canal 

 by the dredges. 



The human bones are considerably "fossilized." But they are 

 not fossilized equally in the two skeletons, 1 nor even in the different 

 parts of one and the same skeleton. The mineralization also is not 



1 The considerably smaller female astragalus weighs 26 grams, the much larger 

 male bone but 20 . 7 grams. 



