holmes] aboriginal AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES PART I 79 



mentaiy culture stage corresponding to the European paleolithic, 

 there appears in the light of what is now known regarding the origin 

 of rudely chipped stones generally, no good reason why it should 

 even ha^e been seriously raised in the Delaware Valley, or, for that 

 matter, elsewhere in America. 



In digging a well in the village of Gaines, Orleans County, N. Y., 



about 1858 David Tomlinson discovered what he be- 

 nTarS'' '^°*'"° Sieved to be a prehistoric hearth, and in 1886, Prof. 



G. K. Gilbert visited the locality for the purpose of 

 A-erifying the report and determining the precise geological relations. 

 The well was dug on the site of a spring which had dried up and at 

 the depth of 15 to 18 feet the hearth was uncovered. 



It consisted of three bowlders about one foot in diameter, lyin.ii close together 

 in the form of a triangle, and surrounded by aslies and fragments of charcoal. 

 Between the stones and pointing toward the central area lay sticks from one 

 to three inches in diameter ; the iiuier ends were charred, the outer not. Above 

 the stones lay other branching sticks which were not charred. ^ 



Professor Gilbert remarks further that the statement of Mr. Tom- 

 linson needs no confirmation as to credibility other than that which 

 pertains to all narrations from memory of events long past. The ter- 

 race on which the Tomlinson house stands, which is about 175 feet 

 above the present level of Lake Ontario, was formed during the long 

 period in which the lakes were held between the ice front on the north 

 and the southern rim of the basin. "When finally the basin was freed 

 from ice. the lake outflowed via the Mohawk Valley, and the ter- 

 race in question was formed. 



The local relations, taken in connection with the phenomena of the shore 

 line as elsewhere observed, indicate that the hearth was made not long [geologi- 

 cally speaking] after the establishment of the Mohawk outlet and during its con- 

 tinuance. It belongs therefore to the period of the decline of the glacial cli- 

 mate. If, with Prof. Chamberlin and others, we recognize two epochs of glacial 

 climate in the district of the Great Lakes, then the date of the hearth belongs 

 to the waning phase of the later and briefer epoch.^ 



It is difficult to determine just what value should be given to this 

 evidence, and it need only be noted that the Gaines terrace was 

 formed subsequent to the retreat of the ice from the Ontario Basin 

 and necessarily far subsequent to the formation of the terraces of the 

 Delaware Valley — a possible difference in time of thousands of years. 



It would appear from the generally accepted estimate of such other 

 reported traces of geologically ancient man on the Atlantic slope 

 that they are not of sufficient importance to require extended notice. 



^ Gilbert, The Geologic History of a Prehistoric Hearth Found in Western New York, 

 p. 173. 



- Ibid., p. 174. 



38657°— 19— Bull. 60, pt i 7 



