42 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1883. 



fresh- water shells of Quaternary age, a bone of Canis, and a 

 specimen of lignite, lay at a depth of twenty feet in the gravel, 

 and at an elevation of 50 feet above the river. Mi*. Ford states 

 that " the wall referred to presented in every part a solid front, 

 without tissure or crevice, everywhere hard and impenetrable 

 except by pick or crowbar, and yet twenty feet under the surface, 

 within this strong matrix deposited by water thousands of years 

 ao^o, laid the evidence of the presence of the man of the period, a 

 stone axe artistically made, and doubtless used for the purposes 

 of battle." The implement thus found by Mr. Ford is more finely 

 finished than that from the Philadelphia gravel. It is made of 

 hard syenite. 



The implements said to occur in the auriferous gravels of Cali- 

 fornia, described by Professor Whitney and others, and those 

 from the loess of the Missouri Valley in Nebraska, discovered by 

 Professor Aughe^^. are also of neolithic type, the California 

 implements being as perfect as anything now made. 



It may be, therefore, that in America rudeness of workman- 

 shi}) is not necessarily associated with great antiquity. 



Opportunity is here taken to refer to a recent paper by Professor 

 H W. Haynes,^ entitled " Some indications of an early race of 

 men in New England," in which the author describes some rough 

 fraoments of granite and quartzite found in various localities in 

 Massachusetts, Vermont, and Ncav Hampsliire, which he considers 

 to be rude forms of implements, more primitive than those of the 

 Delaware gravels, and which are therefore to be regarded as relics 

 of primeval man. 



These objects are of various shapes, sometimes pointed, some- 

 times with sharp edges all around, and frequently sharp on one 

 side and irregular on the other. These latter were regarded as 

 implements adapted for being held in the hand for use in chop- 

 pino- or cutting. All these forms are of ruder type and coarser 

 fabric than the implements of the Trenton gravel. They were 

 found at localities where none of the ordinary traces of Indian 

 occupation could be discovered, and the author infers from them 

 the former existence in New England of a race of men different 

 from and less advanced than the Indians. 



With characteristic courtesy. Professor Haynes invited the 

 speaker to make a personal examination of his full collection of 

 these interesting objects. 



A careful study of each specimen convinced Professor Lewis 

 that tlie angularitiy of these rock fragments, while often resembling 

 that of artificial forms, is in reality due to natural causes rather 

 than to any human workmanship. Cleavage and frost-fracture 

 an-l weathering planes appear to have been the sole agents in the 

 producti'in of the greater part of these forms. Upon most of the 

 specimens examined, Professor Lewis was able to detect traces of 



1 Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., xxi, p. 383, Feb. 1, 1883. 



