62 GEORGE GRANT MacCURDY 



(see Figs. 5 and 6) referred to the same stratum are likewise from 

 siftings. Even if these were eliminated, there would still remain 

 as stratigraphically troublesome elements the two flint chips (see 

 Figs. 1 and 2) . The presence of plant stems, acorn cups, and pieces 

 of wood in the second stratum, although by no means so abundant 

 as in the third stratum, nevertheless give to it an aspect of com- 

 parative newness. Some of the leaves in the muck at the base of 

 the third stratum look as if they might have been buried only a 

 few years ago. 



From observations made on the spot and from a study of speci- 

 mens submitted, the writer is of the opinion that for the most part 

 the human skeletal remains, flint chips, and artifacts probably found 

 their way to this meeting-place of waters through the same agencies 

 as did the various animal and plant remains, and that there has been 

 more or less dovetailing of the two deposits, because of the peculiar 

 location of the site at the junction of two streams coming from oppo- 

 site directions. If these premises be true, it would be hazardous 

 to attribute any great antiquity to even the oldest human and 

 cultural remains from Vero. It would be more logical to assume 

 that some of the extinct forms found in the second stratum are 

 perhaps derived from an older deposit; that others lived on in 

 that southern clime longer than has hitherto been supposed, and 

 that the presence of the Indian hunter had much to do with the 

 final ringing down of the curtain on the drama of their ultimate 

 extinction. 



