V0 1889."'] PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 373 



fessor Putnam, recognized the great importance of the finds of these 

 palaeolithic implements by Dr. Hilborne T. Cresson at a depth of sev- 

 eral feet in the undisturbed ancient gravel terrace of the Delaware 

 Eiver, near Claymont, Newcastle county, Delaware. The artificial ori- 

 gin of these implements appears upon inspection. They repeat (Plates 

 xviii, xxi) the punch marks (fig. e, Plate xx) the hammer strokes, the 

 conchoidal fracture, all of which combine to shape them for a general 

 purpose and to show conclusively that they are the work of man. It 

 is the repetition of these items of testimony in hundreds and even 

 thousauds of specimens that makes the evidence so convincing. 



Mr. McGee, in his article on "Palaeolithic Man in America," in Popu- 

 lar Science Monthly, xxxiv, 1888, speaking of the Treuton implements, 

 gives his opinion thus: "When examined collectively the correspond- 

 ence in form and mode of manufacture between symmetric ' turtle- 

 backs,' ' failures,' i spawls,' ' chips,' and miscellaneous fragments com- 

 pels the cautious geologist to question whether any are demonstrably or 

 even probably natural ; the series is not from the certainly natural to the 

 doubtfully artificial, but from the certainly artificial to the doubtfully nat- 

 uraV (The italics are my own.) 



Implements similar to those referred to have been found by thou- 

 sands in the District of Columbia, as well as all over the United States, 

 and I have ventured to call them palaeolithic. True, they have been 

 found principally upon the surface or in the alluvium which is its equiv- 

 alent. They are not presented as furnishing complete proof of the 

 antiquity of the palaeolithic period, but they have been found in situ- 

 They are part of the res gesta', and must be accepted as evidence in the 

 case tending, at least, to establish the existence of a palaeolithic period 

 in the District of Columbia. 



That the implements found in the District of Columbia and the Poto- 

 mac Valley, illustrated in Plates xvri to xxi were of human manu- 

 facture, and that they belong to the palaeolithic period, can be demon- 

 strated by comparing them, first, with oue another; second, with like im- 

 plements found in the river gravels in the United States; third, with 

 like implements found in other countries, both in the gravels and on 

 the surface. 



The details of this comparison would extend to — 



Form and appearance; material; mode of fabrication ; use and pur- 

 pose. 



In contrast to the similarity of palaeolithic implements will be found 

 an equally marked dissimilarity of implements belonging to the neolithic 

 period, whether of Europe or of America, extending to details of appear- 

 ance, mode of fabrication, material, aud purpose. The wider the geo- 

 graphic range of this comparison and the more minute its details, the 

 more conclusive it becomes. For instance, if, instead of confining our 

 comparison to paleolithic implements from the District of Columbia, we 

 include those from all over the United States; and if, instead of com- 



