n 



dn 



O 



three Indian families who have been 

 Hving at jNIachu Picchu for the past 

 four or five years have had no diffi- 

 culty in raising good crops of sweet 

 potatoes, corn, peppers, onions, to- 

 matoes, and certain native vegeta- 

 bles LUiknown in this country. The 

 only difficulty they have found is 

 in keeping down the superabundant 

 troi3ical vegetation, which con- 

 stantly threatens to suffocate their 

 crops. 



As an instance of how rapidly 

 this vegetation grows, terraces cov- 

 ered by bamboo cane which we 

 cleared in September had to be re- 

 cleared in November, when most of 

 these pictures were taken. In the 

 intervening two months some of the 

 cane had attained a height of five 

 feet. 



It is my hope to prepare a special 

 monograph on Machu Picchu for 

 publication by the National Geo- 

 graphic Society. 



II 



DISCOVERY OF the: CUZCO BONKS 

 IN I9II 



Another discovery made in 191 1 

 was of the so-called Cuzco bones. 

 The age of certain human and other 

 bones found interstratified with 

 glacial gravel near Cuzco was pro- 

 visionally estimated by Prof. Isaiah 

 Bowman, the geologist of the 191 1 

 expedition, as from 20,000 to 40,000 

 years. These bones were brought 

 to New Haven and submitted for 

 examination to Dr. George F. 

 Eaton, osteologist of the Peabody 

 Museum. 



In describing them in an article 

 in the American Journal of Science 

 for April, 191 2, he says in his con- 

 clusion : "It is clear that no proof 

 of great antiquity can be drawn 

 from the characters of the human 

 skeletal parts submitted to me, 

 agreeing, as they do, in all essential 

 respects with the bones of a recent 

 people. Until additional skeletal 

 material is obtained, showing char- 

 acters more primitive than those al- 

 ready noted, the burden of proof of 

 great antiquity must rest on geolog- 

 ical and paleontological evidence." 



490 



