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16.

it was entirely destroyed;but the half foot below this point shows definite stratification; its width measures from several inches to over a foot; the soil appears from yellowish to dark grey, contains a great deal of sand and pebbles; charcoals are occassionally present but very few pot shards. It is only in this stratum that inscribed shells are found. It is quite clear that the origin of the formation of this stratum is due to river action; surrounding this stratum, right and left, upper and below, all are hard yellow earth and contains no sand whatsoever. The dimension of this vein of inscribed bones vary somewhat; it slopes down northeasterly, the deepest part reached more than fifteen feet. Altogether 135 pieces of the inscribed shells and 175 of the uninscribed were taken out from this deposit. It is important to remember that they are all tortoise shells.

Closing the Season's Work.

After the discovery made in pit 36 we decided to close the season's work. The decision was based on the following considerations.

The digging of this season is primarily experimental in nature; testing whether the destruction of the site has gone as far as some have claimed; if not, what kind of preparation is needed for systematic work. Althou the working days of the season are less than three weeks, yet within this short time, the result of the work is sufficient to show the urgent need of systematic work at this site. This being our aim, there is hardly any meaning in continuing this experiment longer than necessary, as the party of the season, is rather under-staffed and insufficiently equipped. Our duty as this time, is, therefore, to report what we have found out and recommend to the headquarter what kind of preparation is necessary for the