HUMAN REMAINS AT VERO. 
75 
The manner of occurrence of the pottery and bone implements must like¬ 
wise be considered. Pottery is distributed throughout the deposit that has been 
designated as stratum No. 3, being more abundant, however, near the base. 
One hundred or more pieces of broken pottery have been taken from this forma¬ 
tion. Bone implements are likewise general in their distribution, although the 
greater number have been taken near the base of stratum No. 3. The large 
arrowhead illustrated in the Eighth Annual Report of the Florida Geological 
Survey (fig. 1, pi. 21) was found lying in a layer of light colored, coarse sand at 
the base of stratum No. 3. The great abundance of pottery, bone implements 
and flints near the base of this deposit is accounted for in the writer’s interpre¬ 
tation by the fact that the stream current was stronger when these first deposits 
were laid down than subsequently,and hence more piaterial from the surrounding 
land surface was washed in than at a later time when the waters became more 
quiet. The muck which predominates in the upper part of the deposit belongs 
to the period of quiet and more or less ponded waters. 
The muck of this section is followed strategically by fresh-water marl, for 
while the marl is not everywhere present, the relative age is indicated by the 
fact that laterally the muck passes under and ultimately grades into the marl 
(Journ. Geol. loc. cit., fig. 3, p. 10). The marl itself, although containing a few 
fresh-water shells and other fossils, represents chiefly calcareous material accu¬ 
mulated by chemical or bio-chemical processes. Its presence, therefore, is sig¬ 
nificant as to the probable age of the section. Hrdlicka (loc. cit. p. 49) refers 
to the fact that this fresh-water marl when first uncovered is often soft and 
hardens on exposure. This, however, is true of marls in general. The Ocala 
limestone of early Tertiary age is frequently soft when first uncovered and 
invariably hardens upon exposure; the same is true of many other limestones. 
He notes also the fact that shells piled up by the aborigines are sometimes found 
to have become cemented. It is to be borne in mind, however, that the cementing 
of shells artificially piled up is a materially different matter to the accumulation 
of a stratum of marl by natural processes. 
The evidence that the vertebrate fossils in the stream bed are 
primary and not secondary is very positive. The following dis¬ 
cussion in regard to the origin of these fossils is reprinted from 
the article by the writer in the American Anthropogist to which ref¬ 
erence has been made. 
* * * Dr. Chamberlin postulates that these fossils have been washed from 
the older Pleistocene deposits which lie immediately back of the beach through 
which the north and south forks of the stream cut, and refers to this formation 
as the “deposit which originally housed the old mammalian bones.” 
If the mammalian bones which are found in such abundance were washed 
from deposits further to the west, naturally we may expect to recover other and 
better fossils from the original or parent formation. Fortunately the opportunity 
for examining the formation in question for fossils is exceptionally good. The 
main canal after cutting across the beach ridge continues inland a distance of 
twelve miles. Moreover, the lateral which enters from the south continues 
