DISCOVERIES ATTRIBUTED TO EARLY MAN 49 
locality showed the presence of similar sand but in small and angular 
grains. Bones of Skeleton I yielded a mixture of the two kinds, 
while in stratum No. 3 above Skeleton II the nature of the sand 
varied according to the place from which secured. 
In support of the antiquity of Skeleton II and of the impossi 
bility of introduction of the bones through burial, Dr. Sellards speaks 
of the &quot; undisturbed &quot; condition of the lamination in stratum No. 3, 
above the bones. This lamination where exposed in vertical sections 
is irregular (pi. 6, fig. 2) and limited to bands of varying length 
the cross sections of irregular pockets or patches of wind-blown or 
water-borne sand and marl. There is no complete or regular stratifi 
cation. Owing to these conditions little if any value can attach to 
the bands. If portions of the deposits were thrown out as in making 
a grave and then thrown back, a rearrangement might occur which 
in time, after seepage and thorough settling, would not be distin 
guished from the surrounding undisturbed parts. In old graves, ex 
cept under unusual conditions, all signs of disturbance of the ground 
are absent or obscured. That a secondary lamination readily takes 
place in moved deposits is best shown right at Vero in the deposits 
thrown out by the dredges, which show wherever exposed sectionally 
a more or less marked banding (pi. 7). 
There is another consideration in connection with Skeletons I and 
II which well deserves attention. The chance of one human skeleton 
becoming accidentally buried would be a rare one, but nevertheless 
might occur ; but what infinitely smaller chance there would be of the 
accidental occurrence repeating itself at nearly the same depth, in 
another formation, 150 feet away, as in this instance. As already 
suggested, a number of human bodies might be left lying exposed 
after a battle or a massacre, but what chance, even then, would there 
be of two such bodies 50 yards apart becoming inclosed in distinct 
deposits, so compactly and in so good a state of preservation as were 
the Vero skeletons ? 
Thus from whatever point of view we approach the subject, if we 
seek to establish the great age of the Vero remains as Dr. Sellards and 
one or two of his friends have tried to do, we meet with very serious 
difficulties. How much more reasonable it is to consider both these 
occurrences as ordinary intentional interments, made in the fossil- 
bearing Vero deposits long after the extinction of the many animal 
species whose bones are found in the same muck and other materials. 
That some of these old bones would lie near or even come to be asso 
ciated with the human remains is only natural. 
OTHER HUMAN SKELETAL REMAINS FROM VERO 
Besides the two skeletons discussed, a tooth representing one indi 
vidual, and two small bones representing two other persons, were dis- 
90522 18 Bull. 66 4 
