26 BUEEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL, ec 
marl &quot; stratum as No. 2, and &quot; the alluvial bed &quot; resting upon this as 
stratum No. 3. Stratum No. 1 has already been denned. Stratum 
No. 2 
[P. 128] includes cross-bedded river-wash sand, partially decayed wood and 
muck, sand stained brown by organic matter, and at places fresh-water marl 
rock. The distinctly cross-bedded sands of this stratum are found near the 
base, and it is here chiefly that the decayed wood and muck occur lying in 
stream channels in the shell marl. The brown sand contains in places many 
fresh-water shells, and grades into the fresh-water marl, which in places in 
cludes at the top as much as 2 feet of rather hard rock. Vertebrate and fresh 
water invertebrate fossils occur throughout this bed from the cross-bedded 
sands at the base to the marl rock at the top. It is from this bed also that 
the first human fossils found at Vero were taken. 
Stratum No. 3 is described thus : 
[Pp. 129-130.] Resting upon this sand and marl bed and in places cutting into 
it is an alluvial deposit consisting chiefly of vegetable material intermixed with 
sand, grading at the top in places, as is true also of the bed beneath, into a 
fresh-water marl. The average aggrading of the stream valley by this alluvial 
material amounts to about 2 feet, although locally where the stream cut deeply 
into the underlying bed this deposit reaches a maximum thickness of 5 or 6 
feet. This alluvial deposit contains vertebrate and plant fossils and in the 
fresh-water marl occasional invertebrates. Human remains are found in this 
deposit also, their place in the section being indicated in text figures 1 and 2. 
Between the marine marl, No. 1 of the section, and the sand and marl 
stratum holding human and other vertebrate fossils, No. 2 of the section, there 
exists no persistent well-marked break in deposition. There is, however, a 
change from marine to fresh-water conditions, and accompanying this change 
one finds evidence of stream action, materials from the land having been 
w r ashed in and deposited in channels in the marine shell marl. On the other 
hand, there are places in the section where the sand and shell beds of the 
marine deposits dovetail into the succeeding fresh-water deposits in such a 
way as to indicate continuous deposition. It is probable that the fresh-water 
deposit indicated by No. 2 of the section represents at this locality the 
closing phase of the marine marl formation, the change to fresh-water condi 
tions having been brought about by a slight shifting of the strand line. 
Between this older stream deposit, No. 2, and the alluvial bed which fol 
lows, No. 3, there is on the other hand an abrupt, well-marked, persistent 
break, the top surface of stratum No. 2 being extremely irregular. The 
alluvial bed, No. 3, the initial phase of which is represented by pronounced 
stream action, conforms to the irregularities of the older deposits. Stratum 
No. 3 represents possibly the filling of the stream channel which followed the 
late Pleistocene depression referred to on page 126. 
One of the abundant and easily recognized fossils of stratum No. 2 is the 
Columbian elephant, Elephas cohimbi, and for convenience of reference this 
stratum may be known as the Elcphas colum-bi zone or horizon. An abundant 
fossil in stratum No. 3 is a deer which is referred provisionally to the modern 
Odocoileus osceola, arid this stratum may be known as the Odocoileus osceola 
zone. 
The human remains. First skeleton. 
[Pp. 131-132.] In October, 1915. Mr. Ayers, while examining the stratum 
which contains the vertebrate fossils, found some bones in place which seemed 
probably to belong to a human skeleton. In order to verify the place of the 
