370 ARCHAEOLOGY OF POTOMAC REGION— MASON. 



To render the question more intricate, the coarse " turtle-back" or 

 " pakeolith" is also found among the finer implements of the low lands, 

 and the finer implements occasionally are found in these upland sites 

 thought to be palaeolithic. 



The question is now fairly up for examination and discussion, and it 

 is being discussed with all the zeal which the advocates of the two theo- 

 ries can exert. It is to be seen whether Piney Branch hill and the other 

 hill finds are workshops and the rude suburbs of the more wealthy and 

 refined lowlanders, or whether in the presence of these rude, flaked 

 pieces we are looking upon the earliest devices of a people that existed 

 and passed from .this valley many thousands of years before it was 

 inhabited by John Smith's Indians. 



The last problem to be taken up is that which relates to geology. We 

 are fortunate in this matter to have the guidance of Prof. W. J. McGee, 

 who is both geologist and archaeologist and has studied quaternary 

 formations especially. As yet the question of relics deep down in the 

 gravels has not arisen here. The problem of palaeolithic man is ren- 

 dered the more difficult by the fact that the formation of the crust com- 

 pels us to look for his relics on the surface or in the loam, and not as hi 

 other locations beneath the soil. 



Combining the researches of the geologist, the prehistoric archaeolo- 

 gist, and the historian, it is designed by the technical section of the 

 Anthropological Society to reconstruct the aboriginal record of the Po- 

 tomac tide-water as the introductory chapter to the occupation of the 

 region by the whites. 



Note. — While this paper was passing through the press Mr. William H. Holmes 

 made an extended investigation of the so-called Pakeolithic Hill on Piney Branch, 

 and his results will he found in the January number of the American Anthropologist 

 for 1890. 



