Photo by II 



11 Ki 



THE OSTEOLOGIST AT WORK: CUZCO VALLEY 



In the north bank of the Huatanaj^ River, a mile below Cuzco, Dr. Eaton found a human 

 skeleton interstratilied with clays and gravels 8 feet underground. Since the time when the 

 bones were deposited there, the entire field of coarse gravels had been laid there above them, 

 and in the succeding centuries the river had cut down the bank until it finally laid them 

 bare (see pages 500 and 501). 



undertook to approach this problem from 

 the mouth of the valley at the junction 

 of the Aobamba and Urubamba rivers. 

 He met with almost insuperable diffi- 

 culties. 



Although the work looked easy as far 

 as we could see from the mouth of the 

 valley, he found that 4 miles from the 

 mouth, up the winding stream, the jungle 

 was so dense as to be almost impassable. 

 There was no trail and the trees were 

 so large and the foliage so dense that ob- 

 servations were impossible even after the 

 trail had been cut. During a hard after- 

 noon's work in jungle of this kind, with 

 four or five men aiding in making the 

 path, they succeeded in advancing only 

 one mile. 



Reconnaissance work in this type of 

 jungle is extremely discouraging and un- 

 profitable. Furthermore, there are occa- 

 sionally some dangers — as, for instance, 

 the following from Mr. Heald's account 

 of his reconnaissance : 



"On the way back to camp one of the 

 men had a narrow escape from a snake, 

 being grasped and held by another of the 

 peons just in time to prevent his stepping 

 on it. It was a small, dust-colored snake, 

 about 10 inches long, and on being ex- 

 amined was found to possess two small 

 poison fangs far back in the jaw. The 

 fangs differed from tho'^e of most poi- 

 sonous snakes in that they slanted back 

 very little, coming almost straight down 

 to the lower jaw." 



THREE NEW CT^OUPS OP RUINS REPORTED. 



There was little of archeological inter- 

 est in the portion of the valley which ]Mr. 

 Heald succeeded in reaching. Quite un- 

 expectedly, however, I got into the up- 

 per reaches of the valley about ten davs' 

 later and found some interesting ruins 

 and hrd an unexpected adventure. It 

 ha])])enec on this wise: 



The largest and richest estate in the 

 Urubamba \'alley, Iluadquina, is owned 



