544 ANNUAL KEPOKT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1938 



areas. The fact that the eastern examples bear a striking resemblance 

 to those in the West does not make them of equal antiquity. They 

 may represent a survival of a highly specialized implement in later 

 horizons. Some students take a different view and regard the indi- 

 viduality of the form together with its apparent absence from the 

 recognized complexes in the East as a manifestation of its greater 

 age. On the basis of the distribution concept as an index to age — 

 a theory substantiated in some respects by evidence that tends to 

 indicate that there is a correlation between type and distribution, so 

 that the larger the area covered the older the form — the eastern 

 examples would indicate more antiquity than the western. But 

 until specimens are found in association with fauna comparable to 

 that in the West and accompanied by other implements now known 

 to belong to the Folsom complex, conclusions must be withheld. 

 The question becomes more complicated when it is recalled that the 

 Folsom implement makers no doubt chipped a variety of sizes and 

 qualities of points for use in hunting different kinds of game, and the 

 larger forms may merely represent those intended for big animals. 



The California occurrences raise a number of questions. There 

 apparently is so marked a gap between them and the major centers 

 of the type that the problem of the relationship is difficult to solve. 

 Furthermore, many of the purported Folsom points from that region 

 are so nondescript in form that it requires stretching of the Folsom- 

 like category to the utmost to include them. In only a very few 

 cases is there an approximation of similarity to the Folsom-Folsom 

 or Lindenmeier-Folsom specimens. This matter of identification, 

 however, is one that has proved troublesome in all parts of the country, 

 and there has been a tendency to include points with a basal thinning, 

 not an actual facial fluting, in the Folsom classification. An explana- 

 tion for the presence of materials attributable to the Folsom complex 

 in California is hard to find in the light of present knowledge. They 

 may have worked westward from the southern plains area, but traces 

 of such a movement are scarce, and suggestions that the reverse was 

 the case, that the Folsom hunters worked east from southern Cali- 

 fornia and thence upward into the plains, seem entirely unwarranted 

 in the light of knowledge of the migration of the animals that formed 

 the chief source of sustenance and the occurrence of materials in that 

 area. It is more likely that the Pacific coast was reached by groups 

 drifting down the Fraser River corridor after it had opened. Coming 

 from the upper plains reservoir of hunting peoples, they could well 

 have possessed similar implements. While too little is known as 

 yet concerning the problem to make any definite statements, it may 

 be mentioned that in view of the indications that the Fraser route 

 opened subsequent to that of the western plains corridor, the Cali- 



