76 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 60 



ing their place in archeology as they have done in the older branches 

 of research. Such of the earlier conclnsions as are sound will doubt- 

 less in time be so fully supported by additional evidence as to force 

 general recognition, while those which are wrong will die a linger- 

 ing death, proportioned in duration directly to the amount of litera- 

 ture with which they have been bolstered up and to the continued 

 personal support of their authors. 



In a few localities, especially in the Ohio and Delaware Valleys, 



prolonged effort has been made to obtain evidence of 

 Delaware Valley a conclusive nature with respect to antiquity. The 



work at Trenton, N. J., has been more extensive than 

 at an}' other station and the results have been presented to the scien- 

 tific world in much detail.^ The river terraces at Trenton are com- 

 posed largely of gravels accumulated at the period when the southern 

 margin of the ice sheet was retreating to the northward in and beyond 

 the Delaware Valley, some 10,000 or 20,000 years ago. At the points 

 in and near Trenton where traces of man have been found, a section 

 of these deposits shows generally a few feet of dark soil underlain 

 by sand deposits of moderate thickness and beneath these accumula- 

 tions of wind drift, while beneath again are the coarser gravels de- 

 posited by the glacial and postglacial torrents. Finds of relics in 

 the superficial deposits, the soil and sands, appear to have little posi- 

 tive chronological value, since the age must always remain in a meas- 

 ure uncertain ; they may as a whole be passed over, therefore, as 

 probably representing the occupation of the valley by tlie Indian 

 tribes. It should be noted that the site of Trenton was. doubtless, 

 a common resort of the Indians for a long period, for hunting, fish- 

 ing, dwelling, and especially for the manufacture of implements from 

 the argillite and other water-worn stones of the outcropping gravel 

 deposits. Relics of various classes, and especially the refuse of 

 manufacture, were thus scattered OA^er the surface and buried to 

 various dejiths in the superficial formations by sand drift and wash 

 at all periods subsequent to the confinement of the river to its present 

 channel. They were also subject to introduction into these deposits 

 by excavations such as occur in all thickly populated districts — exca- 

 vations, canals, foundations for buildings, cellars, graves, cisterns, 

 wells, and the like. Objects of art assigned to the gravels proper 

 and obtained by competent observers from depths not usually pene- 

 trated by excavations are limited in number. A tubular fragment 

 of bone regarded as part of a human femur and said to show traces 

 of human handiwork was found at a depth of 21 feet beneath the 

 surface. Other finds of relics, attributed to the gravels proper, have 

 been adequately characterized by the present writer.- Speaking of 



1 Abliott, The Stone Age in New Jersey, p. 247. Volk, The Archaeology of the Dela- 

 ware Valley. 



° Holmes, Are thrre Traces of Glacial Man in the Trenton Gravels? Primitive Man 

 in the Delaware Valley. 



