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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



weekly papers of the higber class, articles of popular zoological char- 

 acter. In 1883, Dr. Brinton, of Philadelphia, read a paper on " Palaeo- 

 lithic Implements," by Dr. Abbott, at the meeting of the Congress des 

 American istes, in Copenhagen. 



In 1881, Dr. Abbott published his first volume, "Primitive In- 

 dustry, or Illustrations of the Handiwork in Stone, Bone, and Clay, of 

 the Native Races of the Northern Atlantic Seaboard of America." 

 Pp. 560. Illustrations 426. George A. Bates, Salem, Massachusetts. 



The work may be said to be the natural outcome of the fact that the 

 author lives in a neighborhood once densely populated by the Indians; 

 but its appearance was also expedited, if not occasioned, by the en- 

 couragement which he received from the Peabody Museum, at Cam- 

 bridge, in prosecuting an exhaustive search for traces of man in the 

 valley of the Delaware. 



The collection of stone implements made by Dr. Abbott in New 

 Jersey was placed, years ago, in the Peabody Museum at Cambridge, 

 and has since been added to yearly, until now fully twenty thousand 

 specimens are on exhibition. It has recently been said of it in " Sci- 

 ence," that it " is one of the most important series of the kind ever 

 brought together, and one which archaeologists will consult for all 

 time to come." 



The volume is composed really of three parts ; and the aim of the 

 author is to show that, during the close of the Glacial Epoch, if not 

 earlier, man, associated with arctic mammals, occupied the valley of 

 the river ; this being indicated by the occurrence in the gravels of 

 stone implements alike in character with the palaeolithic implements 

 of Europe, but made of dense argillite, instead of flint ; later, as 

 attested by a class of better finished objects made of argillite, and 

 as a class found under circumstances indicating antiquity greater 

 than the ordinary surface-found Indian relic ; lastly, the ordinary 

 jasper and quartz arrow-heads and sandstone axes of the Indians 

 proper. 



Since the publication of the book, a vast deal of material has been 

 gathered, and the result has been to confirm the views expressed in 

 the volume. A fragment of a human cranium, a lower jaw, a tooth, 

 and lately a fragment of a human temporal bone, have been taken 

 from the implement-bearing gravels. A critical reviewer, in the 

 " Nation," has said of the volume : " It is a valuable addition to the 

 sum of our knowledge of aboriginal man ; ... as such, it is abun- 

 dantly worthy of a place beside Mr. Evan's elaborate treatise on the 

 'Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain.'" 



In 1884 was published "A Naturalist's Rambles about Home" 

 by D. Appleton & Co., New York. It is a selection, in part, from many 

 contributions to zoological journals, but also contains much original 

 matter. It is exclusively " field " studies, and results of daily obser- 

 vations of the animal life about the author's home. 



