FOSSIL MAN. 271 



where I live, he had found a considerable deposit 

 of argillite chips, rude arrow-heads, and bits of 

 pottery ; but that there was no trace of jasper or 

 quartz, or indeed of any other mineral. As I 

 had collected Indian relics by the hundreds, in 

 this same field, I refrained from visiting the spot, 

 but requested my friend to examine the locality 

 again with great care, and report to Prof. Put- 

 nam, of the Peabody Museum at Cambridge, 

 Massachusetts. What was the result? My 

 friend reported, briefly, that the spot was one un- 

 covered by heavy rains, and formed part of the 

 bank of a brook that crossed the field (this 

 brook, I would state, was a considerable creek 

 in 1680) ; that the argillite chips, rude arrow- 

 points, knives, scrapers, and bits of pottery were 

 found at a common level, and about fifteen inches 

 below the present surface of the field. Prof. 

 Putnam, in acknowledging the receipt of the 

 specimens and report as to their discovery, re- 

 plied that "the pottery was of unusual interest, as 

 it was exceedingly rude and differed very greatly 

 from any that Dr. Abbott had sent from the 

 same general neighborhood." As the bits of pot- 

 tery from this general neighborhood that I have 

 collected amount to hundreds of thousands, it 

 would seem that Prof. Putnam's remarks have a 

 good deal of significance. 



As having a most important bearing upon 



