58 ABBOTT— ARCH^OLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF 



facts from here, surface-found, from the sands and from the im- 

 plement-bearing drift gravels, declaring that the changes wrought in 

 the surfaces of these worked stones could only be explained by long 

 submergence in sea water.^ 



Illustrative of this, July 4, Mr. Albert Moyer, of New York 

 City, and myself, made a section of these sands, and he had the 

 good fortune to expose, by careful paring down of the exposure, a 

 series of objects, all of which are, I think, of artificial origin. The 

 surface soil, twelve inches in depth, was carefully removed and the 

 sand underlying for several inches was considered a zone of doubt 

 and nothing found therein was accepted as indicative of antiquity. 

 Beneath this, the sand was of lighter color, and only moderately 

 compact, but increased in density and where really resistant to the 

 trenching tool, the artifacts were found. Among them was a minute 

 fragment of pottery. This was a little disconcerting, for I have 

 never seen potsherds from these sands and Mr. Volk informs me, 

 he has never, in his many years' experience, found any traces of 

 pottery, even of the rudest pattern. I can only conclude that pre- 

 Wisconsin man was acquainted with the rudiments of the ceramic 

 art. 



Probably more effective than rain in changing the conditions of 

 a deposit of sand is the action of frost upon it. This, of course, 

 refers to rain as absorbed and not as a transporting agency. I have 

 known the soil and sand at this point to be frozen to a depth of four 

 feet, while the lowermost of the artifacts found by Mr. ]\Ioyer was 

 forty inches below the surface and twenty-two in the compact, un- 

 disturbed, clay-cemented sand, so it becomes evident 'that during 

 many winters of each century since the sand was in its present 

 position and under present conditions, these objects have been frost- 

 bound and then liberated by the springtide warmth. This periodic 

 condition of frost appears only to aft'ect physically but not disturb 

 or displace the containing bed. The upheaval of the surface of a 

 field is only soil deep in its disturbance of the contained pebbles and 

 artifacts. They may be lifted up and let down, but the relative 

 position of these objects, each to the other, is not materially changed 



•''' Sec Winchell-Abbott Correnspondence — unpublished — at Pcabody Mu- 

 seum, Cambridge, Mass. 



