'^'J^ [May 19, 



have the external portions of the original shape entirely 

 removed. Some of the most numerous class of them were 

 exhibited, and have a portion of the original surface ; others 

 have a small portion of it ; and others none at all. Many 

 hundreds have been carried away by inhabitants of Wash- 

 ington, and many by Mr. W. 11. Holmes, of the Bureau 

 of Ethnology there. Tlie method of manufacture was de- 

 scribed ; showing that the fractures could not be natural, but 

 must be artificial. The question is. What are these objects? In 

 Europe similar objects are reckoned as made by the earliest 

 men, and are found at the lowest bed of the cave deposits. 

 They are not polished. Now in Switzerland, for example, 

 the paleolithic man is quite definitely associated with certain 

 extinct animals. The later paleolithic man was an artist, 

 while the following neolithic men were less artistic. Now, 

 however, the Washington men insist that these ruder imple- 

 ments are only the imperfect or rejected implements of later 

 men, merely the residue and rejected work of neolithic men ; 

 and in part the effect of weathering. One reason given why 

 the more perfect implements are not found with them is, that 

 the better ones have been carried away. The evidence in 

 America is less perfect than in Europe, yet it is against sup- 

 posing that the makers of the imperfect implements also had 

 better ones. None of the better ones have been found in the 

 whole region. The geological part of the investigation by 

 the Washington men has been well done. At Trenton, how- 

 ever, they are thoroughly opposed by the good authority of 

 Prof. F. W. Putnam. The history of man in America may 

 be affected by the result of the discussion ; but not that of 

 European man. In America, too, the study of the caves has 

 not been stutlied so far as in Europe ; and the cave deposits 

 give much the most trustworthy evidence. Mr. Clarence B. 

 ]Moore has made important discoveries in Florida. He found 

 a ramus of the lower jaw of a dog in a shell heap there this 

 past winter. The shell heaps are post-Columbian. But this 

 dog does not appear to be the present domestic dog. The jaw 

 has three premolar teeth, instead of four, a deficiency which is 



