INVESTIGATION VERSUS PROPAGANDISM 319 



since it indicates a more mesophytic habitat than exists today in the vicinity 



of Vero I therefore see no reason to doubt that relatively modern men 



were contemporaneous with this partially extinct fauna of Middle Pleistocene 

 aspect which survived in Florida to the late Pleistocene. With regard to the 

 exact age of the Vero deposits there are, it seems to me, but two alternatives, 

 and these apply equally and are in large part derived from a study of the 

 physiography and the faunas and floras of the corresponding topographic 

 forms in the other states of the Coastal Plain. These alternatives are that they 

 are about the same age as the Peorian interglacial deposits of the Mississippi 

 Valley or are immediately post-Wisconsin and correspond with what the Scandi- 

 navian geologists have named Litorina time.' 



Contribution from the viewpoint of the fossil beetles. — Recently a 

 contribution relative to the fossil beetles has been made by H. F. 

 Wickham, which is given a place here. The following is the 

 author's summary: 



Two conclusions seem to be warranted after a study of the beetle frag- 

 ments. The first is that there is nothing to indicate any particular difference 

 in climatic conditions in Florida then and now, since the assemblage of genera 

 is the same as one might expect to find in a stream valley there today. The 

 nearest relatives of the species are still characteristic members of the Floridian 

 fauna and many of them are apparently identical. Second, it seems evident 

 that there has been some change in minor characters of sculpture, since it is 

 not possible to match certain of the fossils exactly with modern forms. In 

 view of the fact that other researches indicate that insect evolution has been 

 extremely slow, so that many species, even as old as the Tertiaries, are rather 

 difficult to discriminate from their modern allies, no more marked divergence 

 would be anticipated.^ 



Contribution from the viewpoint of regional geology. — Obviously 

 the formations that occupy the adjacent coastal region and reach 

 back to the glacial deposits have a vital bearing on the interpre- 

 tation of the Vero deposits, and so the problem of interpretation 

 as seen from the standpoint of the geologist in charge of the coastal 

 plain investigations of the U.S. Geological Survey, Dr. Thomas W. 

 Vaughan, constitutes a contribution on a distinct basis. The 

 following is the essence of his conclusions: "The occurrence of 

 artifacts and human bones in association with Pleistocene fossils 

 does not prove the Pleistocene age of man," since previous investi- 

 gations have shown that human artifacts and bones, by many 



^ Ninth Annual Rept., Florida Geol. Survey, 191 7, pp. 31-33. 

 ^ Amer. Jour. Science, May, 1919, p. 355. 



