14 /:'. II. Sellards — Discovery of 'Fossil Human Remains 



found, the femur, of which only a pari of the shaft is preserved, 

 was lying near the ulna and at about the same level. The 

 radius, of which the proximal part only was obtained, was 

 found five feet north of east of the ulna, and at the same place 

 in the seel ion, that is at the bottom of the hod of sand and 

 alluvial material. Owing to the slope of the bed at this place, 

 however, I his bone lay at an actual level fully two feet lower 

 than the ulna. The jaw and the parts of the skull were found 

 chiefly between the ulna and the radius and from a few inches 

 to two feet farther back in the bank. One of the foot bones, a 

 fifth metatarsal, was taken about eight feet east of the ulna and 

 at an actual level, owing to the change in slope, above that of 

 the radius and approximately the same as that of the ulna.i 

 Above the human skeleton four feet of alluvial material are 

 found at this place, consisting of alternating layers of sand and 

 muck, which in places grade into soft fresh-water marl having 

 a thickness of as much as two feet. Fossil plants including 

 leaves, stems and seeds are found in the muck bed. The plants, 

 aj:>parently, are but little changed from their original condition. 

 In this deposit were found also numerous pieces of pottery, 

 fragments of charcoal, and a few implements. Of the imple- 

 ments three are of bone, one of wood, and one of flint, possibly 

 the tip of an arrow point. 



The Associated Vertebrate Fossils. 



The position of this skeleton and the conditions of preserva- 

 tion are such as to exclude definitely the possibility of its repre- 

 senting a human burial. In discussing the human remains it 

 is well, therefore, to pass at once to a consideration of the 

 associated fossils. The stream bed at the place where the 

 human fossils were found, as already noted, cuts through the 

 older stream fill and into the marine shell marl. Under these 

 conditions it becomes necessary to carefully exclude any fossils 

 that may have washed in from the older bed beneath. It is by 

 no means unusual for fossil bones and teeth to wash from an 

 older and lodge in a newer formation, although such bones are 

 very sure to betray their true origin by their rounded and worn 

 condition. It is a significant fact, therefore, that the bones 

 found in association with the human fossils, as well as else- 

 where in this alluvial bed, are sharp cornered and entirely 

 unworn. The associated bones are frequently broken, but no 

 more so than are the human bones. The fact that deli- 

 cate jaws and teeth are here preserved is conclusive proof that 

 the animals represented were actually contemporaneous with 

 man at this place. 



