INSTITUTF. OF SCIKNCE, PHII.ADELI'HIA. II 



infiltration of iron oxide. A thigh-bone is stated to weigh 492 grains, 

 while a recent one of the same length weighed 353 grains. About fifty feet 

 north of the locality where the former bones were found, the rock occupy- 

 ing the same relative position beneath the surface soil is lighter colored and 

 harder, and apparently is of the same age as that containing the bones. 

 About seventy-five yards north of the locality, what appears to be the 

 same sandstone is also lighter and harder, and is overlaid by a soft sand- 

 stone. The latter where visible is not more than eight to ten inches thick 

 and full of fossils, among which were recognized Fu/gur pcrversiis, Strovibiis 

 piigilis, Fasciolaria gigantca, Mcloiigoia corona, Vonts Mortoni, etc. 



A letter from Mr. Wm. H. Dall states that he had received for identifica- 

 tion from Mr. Willcox some rock specimens with fossil shells supposed to 

 be the same as that to which the fossil bones belong. Mr. Dall continues, the 

 rock is composed of silicious and calcareous sand with shells, and is of the 

 same kind as that on the little island on Lake Monroe, near Enterprise, 

 Florida, where Portales found human bones thirty years ago. The shells are 

 all of living species and consist of Donax varicgatus Say, Natica pusilla Say, 

 Glmtdina trtincata Say, Helix uvulifera Shuttl., Helix ccreoliis Muhlf var. 

 niicrodon Deshayes, Succiiica avara Say, Strobila lahyrinthica Say, etc., 

 all common in the vicinity to-day. 



A more characteristic human fossil, found in a similar position and de- 

 posit almost half a dozen miles south of the former locality, was submitted 

 to the writer for examination by the Smithsonian Institution. The speci- 

 men consi.sts of the base of a skull, the vault broken off and lost, but retain- 

 ing part of the face and a fragment of the mandible. The alveolar portions 

 of the jaws and teeth are also absent. The fossil beneath is embedded in a 

 mass of hard bog ore, while the bottom of the cranial cavity is occupied by 

 fine coherent silicious sand. It was found in digging a trench through the 

 formation enclosing it, by Mr. John G. Webb, of Osprey, Florida, and was 

 presented by him to the Smitlisonian Institution. By request, Mr. Webb 

 made further search in the place where the skull was discovered, and found 

 a number of broken bones in the same condition as the skull. Mr. Webb 

 remarks that the bones were "in a heap, as if the man to whom they be- 

 longed had been buried in a sitting position." Such an observation would 

 make it appear as if a human body had been buried in the formation in 

 which the remains were found, and therefore that they do not actually be- 

 long to it as cotemporary fossils. 



The fossil skull itself is converted into limonite, like the bones obtained 

 by Prof Heilprin and Mr. Willcox, and the portions where exposed are 

 well preser\'ed and not in the slightest degree eroded or water-worn. The 

 specimen, represented in figures i, 2, plate I., indicates a well-proportioned 

 ovoid skull, and closely approximates in shape an ordinary prepared French 

 skull, such as the writer has lying at the side of the fossil. The forehead 



