CORRESP ONDENCE. 



847 



posed of drift. The lamps were removed 

 from the two towers, and one of them soon 

 after fell over ; the previous morning they 

 had stood nearly four hundred feet from 

 the bank. The detritus, by the heavy 

 pounding of the surf, was cleaned out, re- 

 vealing the fact that the bottom, for half a 

 mile along the Hue of coast, and more than 

 one hundred yards landward, had been uncov- 

 ered, and consisted of a hard blue clay, in 

 which were imbedded many trunks of trees, 

 and that the whole surface was covered with 

 tracks of animals of different sizes and 

 shapes ; while, proceeding in a diagonal di- 

 rection from the still-overhanging bluff, 

 to the sea, were the perfectly preserved 

 tracks of five pairs of naked human feet, 

 evidently those of a woman and four chil- 

 dren of different ages ; three were upon one 

 side of the woman and one upon the other. 

 The tracks, as I have been assured by the 

 most intelligent men of the place,* were as 

 distinct and perfectly preserved in the clay 

 bottom, as though made but the day be- 

 fore ; they all had the same peculiarity 

 noticed in those who live a free and unre- 

 strained life that the toes were not turned 

 out, but that the step was straight forward. 

 Around one stump, broken off several feet 

 above the surface upon which these tracks 

 appeared, were many confused tracks, and 

 much hair, f From reports made me, I 

 judge it must have been some animal of the 

 deer or bison family, scratching himself 

 upon the sharp, broken fragments of the 

 stump. I sent some of the hair to the Sec- 

 retary of the Museum of Natural History 

 of Boston for a microscopical examination. 

 Although quite a number of months have 

 elapsed, no report has been made to me as 

 yet of the result of it, although one was 

 speedily promised at the time I sent it. 



The question that appeals to the scientist 

 for solution is, " When were these human 

 foot-prints made ? " It is one more easy to 

 be asked than answered ; yet it is plain to 

 any observer that they could only have been 

 made prior to the Drift epoch, which piled, 



* One of the principal gentlemen from whom 

 the above information was derived is Captain 

 George Eldredge, author of " Eldredge's Charts," 

 " Eldredge's Coast Pilot," etc. Another is Levi 

 Atwood, Esq., editor of the " Chatham Monitor." 

 Both these gentlemen live in Chatham, and from 

 long personal acquaintance I can speak highly of 

 them as men of truth and general trustworthiness. 

 Both they, and many others, equally reliable, will 

 confirm all the facts I have stated above. 



t Captain Eldredge told me he should judge 

 that, were it all collected, there would be two 

 quarts of it. He showed me some that he had 

 gathered and preserved ; it was coarse, reddish- 

 brown, and about four inches in length, or varying 

 from three and one half to four and one half inches 

 long. It may be well to state that after a few 

 storms the whole of the uncovered portion was 

 covered once more with sand, and all these wonder- 

 ful phenomena were obliterated. Under the bluff 

 are yet concealed sights, perhaps still more useful 

 to archieology. 



by glacial action, over forty feet of stones 

 and dirt above them. This deposit was 

 made or at least begun suddenly. We 

 see too many tracks to allow us to believe 

 that this bottom could have been at the 

 ancient sea, for then the tidal action and 

 storms must have obliterated the impres- 

 sions ; for they were too numerous and of 

 too diverse a character to permit the idea 

 that they did not require a considerable pe- 

 riod of time for their formation ; the children 

 were walking along by the side of their 

 adult companion, without fear or hurry; 

 close by where they passed, an animal " with 

 feet as large as a big ox's, and the same 

 shape," before or after they passed, relieved 

 himself of his winter's growth of hair ; for 

 the hair was all of four or five inches long, 

 and was trodden into the clay, and adhered 

 to the stump in large quantities. There 

 were also marks of feet showing a most per- 

 fect facsimile to the bear of to-day some 

 form of plantigrade, surely ; and they would 

 not have taken the course they did had not 

 the coast been clear. It was spring when 

 this was covered by the drift, for this animal 

 was not only getting rid of a heavy coat of 

 hair, in immense quantities, but the woman 

 and children were barefoot, conclusively 

 proving that the weather, at the time these 

 impressions were made, was moderately or 

 quite warm, and that it was in the early 

 spring ; that a severe winter was the rule, 

 by the length and great abundance of the 

 hair rubbed off by this bison, moose, or elk, 

 or whatever he might be ; that the coast-line 

 was lower than it now is,, as proved by the 

 growth of trees, which served the people 

 living near the beach for fuel many weeks. 

 But the great question of when all this took 

 place, is one that I leave for others to an- 

 swer. The fact that the whole of Barn- 

 stable County, commonly known as Cape 

 Cod, shows, in all its parts, unmistakable 

 proofs of long - continued glacial action, 

 with large bowlders thickly planted in 

 many localities ; while, by boring for wells 

 in nearly all parts of the town of Chatham, 

 down to a depth of thirty feet or there- 

 about, evidences of the drift only are found, 

 and then a stratum of blue clay to an un- 

 known depth ; and that this same clay is 

 found all over the cape at varying distances 

 from the surface would mark it as the 

 original pre-glacial bottom, and the impres- 

 sions I have mentioned those of the true 

 aboriginal inhabitants, belonging to the 

 Pliocene period. C. J. Kickek, M. D. 



Newton, Mass., May 12, 1883. 



HOMCEOPATHY AND QUACKERY. 

 Me$srs. Editors: 



In the June number of " The Popular 

 Science Monthly " is an article on " Quacks 

 and Quackeries," which, in its allusion to 



