1883. 11 Trans. N. Y. Ac. Set. 



pily and justly applied to the second Glacial epoch on this continent, 

 now clearly distinguished. 



The paper was illustrated with specimens showing implements of 

 both types from the locality referred to, 



DISCUSSION. 



In reply to inquiries by the President and Prof. Fairchild, 

 Prof. Martin stated that all the stone implements now discovered are 

 added to the main collection at Cambridge, Mass. ; but nevertheless 

 Dr. Abbott possesses a considerable number, many of which present 

 well-defined forms. 



The President expressed great satisfaction with the clear account 

 of this interesting locality given by Prof. Martin. There would seem to 

 be no doubt of the genuineness of Dr. Abbott's discoveries. Rude 

 flint implements had certainly been found by him in the Trenton 

 gravels, but these were postglacial in date, or at least formed by the 

 drainage of the glaciers in their retreat, and hence not older than the 

 river gravels of Europe which contained the oldest remains of man yet 

 discovered there. The interval between the date of deposition of these 

 gravels and the present time could not yet be expressed clearly, but 

 it must have covered many thousands of years. This view would be 

 repugnant to some who held to the conventional six thousand years 

 which have been generally supposed to include all the time of Man's 

 residence on the earth, but no one's faith need be disturbed by it. 

 The chronology of the Mosaic record has always been a matter of dis- 

 cussion and difference among scholars and theologians, over two hun- 

 dred different estimates having been put on record on this subject. 

 The R6v. Adam Sedgwick, a distinguished divine and geologist of 

 England, whose authority is, perhaps, second to none, summed up his 

 discussion of this question by saying that in regard to the dates of the 

 Creation of the world, and the appearance of Man on the earth, the 

 Creator had in His wisdom left us without exact information, that no 

 clear and positive statement was made on this subject in the Scriptures, 

 and there has always been a wide and irreconcilable diversity of opin- 

 ion as to the dates of the Book of Genesis among biblical scholars. 



Dr. B. N. Martin referred to the many proofs of Dr. Abbott's 

 discovery in the large collections he had made of the worked flints, 

 amounting to hundreds. Since their deposit at Cambridge, they had 

 been examined and their character confirmed by so careful an observer 

 as Prof. Lubbock. Prof. H. C. Lewis and others had also gone over 

 the ground with Dr. Abbott, discovered th^ implements indepen- 

 dently for themselves, and verified their distribution as exactly corre- 

 sponding with the area of the Trenton gravel. His own visit to the lo- 



