638 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [n. s., i, 1899
case of this kind ; and when so buried, there is no reason why the osseous remains, especially if deeply covered by over-deposits of shifting materials, should not have assumed, in a comparatively short period of time, exactly the conditions characterizing a fossil. Such comparatively recent burials in exposed very ancient river gravels may readily have taken place within less than a thou- sand yards of the Mattison mine.
The term /aw*'/ really signifies little in this connection, although assumed by some to signify much. No one would venture to assert that a skull might not lose nearly all its organic matter, and that a large portion of the phosphate of lime might not be replaced by the carbonate in a few hundred years if the conditions were reasonably favorable to the change. That such changes do not readily take place very near the surface is probably true ; but we must not lose sight of the fact that, setting aside the possibility of the accumulation of deep overplacements, burial in caves and pits was practiced in this section and that these receptacles are sometimes of very considerable depth. Bodies cast in are rapidly covered up and are subject to just such conditions as those favor- ing fossilization.
It should be noted that silicification of the osseous matter of the skull is not mentioned ; iron and lime are cementing agencies merely. Iron is everywhere and its reactions are rapid ; and in a region abounding in limestone formations calcareous matter is freely dissolved, carried, and deposited by the waters. The con- ditions characterizing the skull are just such as might be expected in a skull coming from one of the limestone caves, crevices, or pits of the district. The thin film of calcareous matter coating the skull and extending throughout the porous filling makes it heavy, but does not necessarily indicate a prolonged period of inhumation.
It would appear from statements made by Scribner (in Hud- son's paper, already quoted) that Whitney descended into the mine and examined the gravel bed from which the skull is said to
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