3o6 T. C. CHAM BERLIN 



appropriate scientific jury through the venerable American Journal 

 of Science. The subject was thus given a fitting introduction and 

 a distinctly scientific aspect from the outset. 



The presence of vertebrate fossils in deposits of a late age at 

 Vero was learned as early as 19 13. Fossil human remains were 

 found in association with these in 19 16. The first announcement 

 by Dr. Elias H. Sellards, state geologist of Florida, was made in 

 July, 19 1 6. A supplementary statement in Science was made in 

 October, 1916, and an official report in the Eighth Annual Report 

 of the Florida Geological Survey. This stage presents an excellent 

 example of the composite work that falls to the lot of state geologists 

 and their associates, in which it is often necessary for a single 

 inquirer or a small group to pass upon very complex phenomena 

 whose ideal treatment calls for the co-operative work of many 

 specialists. 



The case as developed in this introductory stage. — Beneath the 

 site of the finds the basal formation is a marine marl (coquina) 

 commonly referred to a late Pleistocene age, though all or essentially 

 all its fossils belong to living species. It spreads under the whole 

 neighborhood, so far as present evidence goes, and forms an excel- 

 lent basal datum plane. On this basal formation the retiring sea 

 built sand flats and beach ridges, while the wind built dunes, the 

 whole forming a low belt of finishing deposits. These lie along the 

 margin of the present mainland, while across a sea inlet about a 

 mile wide, lies a barrier reef now in process of building which forms 

 the outermost coast line of the Atlantic. The low ridged belt on 

 the edge of the mainland is known in the discussion as Vero Ridge. 



After the withdrawal of the sea, surface wash deposits and fresh- 

 water marls gathered to some extent in the shallow basins of these 

 finishing formations. At the same time a small drainage system 

 was estabhshed near Vero, now known as Van Valkenburg's Creek. 

 The main stream channel was formed by the junction of two 

 branches which in turn were sub-branched. All these features seem 

 to have been determined mainly by the ridglets, swells, and hollows 

 of the retiring sea deposits. The branchlets, however, reach back 

 into a marshy tract west of the Vero Ridge. The united drainage 

 from the north meets that from the south nearly head-on and the 



