INVESTIGATION VERSUS PROPAGANDISM 307 



two unite into a trunk stream flowing eastward to the sea about a 

 mile away. The particular site of the human and vertebrate 

 remains lies near the junction of the two branches. 



Before the remains under debate could have been buried in the 

 way in which they were found, the creek must have excavated a 

 relatively broad flat with such low gradients as to permit aggrada- 

 tion. The average depth of the aggraded creek deposits is about 

 six feet. They consist chiefly of washed sand and vegetal muck 

 and other debris, with some fresh- water marl. They are thought 

 by Dr. Sellards and most others to be divisible into two layers, a 

 lower, No. 2, consisting of three to four feet of sand and muck, with 

 fresh-water marl; while the upper. No. 3, consists more largely of 

 muck and vegetal debris with a less proportion of sand, layer No. i 

 being the marine marl below. The upper layer, No. 3, cuts here 

 and there into No. 2, sometimes cutting entirely through it into 

 the marine bed below. 



In this first stage of inquiry, parts of two human skeletons were 

 recognized, one of which was referred by Dr. Sellards to the lower 

 creek deposit, No. 2, and the other to the upper creek deposit, No. 3. 

 It was urged strongly in the initial papers that the scattered condi- 

 tion of the bones, as well as their other relations, shut out the proba- 

 bihty, if not the possibility, of intrusive burial. On the other 

 hand, it was urged that the human remains could not have been 

 washed in from outside sources, or even transferred from the one 

 layer to the other in any notable degree, because of the unworn 

 state of some of the fossils and the fragile condition of others. A 

 considerable number of the vertebrates found in the lower layer 

 were identified as extinct forms; some of them had been usually 

 referred to rather early stages of the Pleistocene. A smaller number 

 of extinct vertebrates were found in the base of the upper layer, at 

 about the same level as that of the human skeleton referred to that 

 layer. The bones of the extinct vertebrates and of man were both 

 found to be mineralized in much the same degree. With the 

 human bones were found chipped stones, bone implements, and 

 fragments of pottery. 



On the basis of the evidence thus gathered the lower creek 

 deposit. No. 2, was referred confidently ot the Pleistocene; the 



