40 
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 
[BULL, ee 
enough to furnish the writer with copies of the original surveys 
(figs. 1, 6, 7), which show these conditions. 
Below the muck bed of the southern branch, along the southern 
bank of the canal down to and beyond the railroad bridge, and along- 
most of the bank opposite, are seen marine and alluvial-aeolian 
deposits, which can be separated into three or possibly four strata. 
The lowest, beginning on the average about 5 feet from the surface 
and of unknown depth, is an old marine deposit, consisting of tri 
turated shell with some marl and whitish sand. This layer is not yet 
consolidated and yields numerous fossil shells, but no vertebrates. It 
is laver No. 1 of Sellards. 
FIG. 7. The Vero Canal, between the spillway and the railroad bridge. The solid black 
squares indicate the location of the human remains. (From topographical survey 
furnished the Smithsonian Institution by William H. Kimball, chief engineer in charge 
of the construction of the canal.) 
Upon layer No. 1 rests unconformably, and in many places with 
out any definite boundary line, Sellards s stratum No. 2, a thick, com 
pact layer of brownish sand, the upper darkest portions of which 
show more or less &quot; toughening &quot; or induration, though not enough 
to prevent slicing with a good hoe (see pi. 2.) This indurated 
portion is called a &quot;rather hard rock&quot; by Sellards (p. 128). a 
characterization which it does not seem to deserve. The layer yields 
numerous and generally isolated or fragmentary bones of fossil 
vertebrates of Pleistocene age. If we accept its darkest and most 
compact portion as the upper limit of the layer, as suggested by its 
color, induration, and absence of roots, then the upper line of demar 
cation is quite uniform along the banks of the canal, but laterally, 
as seen in the wall of the southern lateral drain, it shows much 
