INVESTIGATION VERSUS PROPAGANDISM 321 



part in the first conference and symposium. His discussion covers 

 the import of the flint spalls and implements, the bone implements 

 and the pottery. In the course of critical descriptions and obser- 

 vations on these he notes that two of the spalls are identical in 

 material and might well have been chipped from the same flint 

 block. One was found in bed No. 2 and the other in bed No. 3, 

 which he regards as significant and raises the question whether 

 both might not have come from the upper bed through the agency 

 of growing roots or burrowing animals. The spalls were never 

 retouched and were evidently chipped from the parent block near 

 where they were found. As the parent rock is not found in place 

 nearer than the Ocala formation, one hundred miles distant, he 

 thinks the transportation was by human agency. A typical 

 arrowhead of flint with barbs and stem implies the end sought 

 in the chipping and the state of the industry. 



To summarize the archaeological evidences of man's antiquity at Vero, 

 one can say that the pottery, bone implements, including fishhooks, bone- 

 heads, and flint arrowheads from stratum No. 3 and from the surface of con- 

 tact between it and the stratum below, aU point to a period that might well 

 have continued down to the close of the prehistoric period in Florida. This is 

 also true of the human skeletal remains from the third stratum. On the other 

 hand, of the 25 mammalian species from the second stratum as listed by Dr. 

 Sellards, ten, including Elephas colmnbi, Mammut americanum, Equus leidyi ( ?) 

 and Tapirus haysii (?), recur in stratum No. 3. Assuming that the stratig- 

 raphy is not misleading, the conclusion is either that this particular phase of 

 the Neolithic period in America dates back farther than many had supposed, 

 or else that certain fossil mammals continued to live on in Florida until a 

 comparatively recent date. 



The chief interest centers in the second stratum. From it no undoubted 

 stone implements have thus far been reported. Although probably produced 

 through human agency, the flint spalls from this deposit do not differ from those 

 in the deposit above, in one case there being absolute identity of material. 

 While a greater number" of bone objects have been found in the third deposit 

 than in the second, bone points of the same type occur in both ; neither do these 

 seem to differ as to their chemical state. Potsherds, fairly frequent in stratum 

 No. 3, have not yet been reported from the stratum below. Of the human 

 skeletal remains there does not seem to be any appreciable differentiation 

 between those from the second and those from the third stratum. 



There are to be noted then the absence of well-defined stone artifacts and of 

 pot tery from the second deposit ; the presence of both in the third ; the similarity 



