28 
the “spades” or “hoes,” “oval plates of flint flat on one 
side and slightly convex on the other, the outline being 
chipped to a sharp edge.” These differ principally from 
the European implements, which most nearly approach 
them, in their greater thinness. It is possible that they 
may have been used for agricultural purposes, and some 
bear traces of use, such as digging in sandy soil would 
produce. 
Fragments of pottery are very abundant in New Jersey, 
but “unbroken articles of earthenware are rarely met 
with.’ 
“© large portion of the pottery made by the Indians, 
however, was not made from pure clay just as it came 
from the bed, but the clay-earths that overlie the others 
were utilised and made available by mixing with them 
quartz granules and pounded shell. Much of the pure 
clay, which in many places was accessible, would need 
far more manipulation than the Indian potters would care 
to give it, and as the mixture of clay and shell was 
simpler and would meet all their requirements, it was, 
very naturally, most frequently used. They nevertheless 
possessed the knowledge of successfully working in pure 
clay, as sherds are found so made, and their well-formed 
clay smoking pipes are a further proof of the fact.” 
The forms are generally simple, and the ornamentation 
rude, The patterns are almost, if not quite, invariably 
geometrical ; and generally made either with a pointed 
stick or bone, with the thumb-nail, with a twisted cord, or 
by covering the vessel, of course when soft, with coarse 
cloth. 
Copper implements are comparatively rare, and Dr. 
Abbott is disposed to think that they— 
“Were never designed for use as weapons or imple- 
ments, but were intended for display upon special 
occasions, as for instance in their various dances, when 
much ceremony was observed, and various objects were 
displayed that at other times remained hidden in the 
custody of their fortunate owners, or of the appointed 
keepers, if tribal property.” 
He is clearly of opinion that they were merely ham- 
mered into form and never cast. They are always of 
very simple form. 
As already mentioned, in one county of New Jersey 
alone Dr. Abbott has gathered no less than 20,000 stone 
implements. No one implement or pattern is peculiar to 
any one district, though certain forms abound in particular 
localities. 
“Although in no instance has any one pattern of 
arrow-head been found so characteristic of a given 
locality as are the argillite fish-spears of the alluvial 
deposits along the river, it has frequently been observed 
by collectors that some particular form occurred in con- 
siderable numbers in a locality of very limited area, as a 
field or other small plot of ground. In my own collecting 
tours I have frequently noticed this, and can recall now 
certain fields that appeared to have only leaf-shaped 
arrow-heads, and others where the triangular pattern was 
alone met with. Even this is noticeable with other forms 
of chipped implements, and local collectors report fields, 
or other spots of a few acres, where only scrapers are 
found. This localising of certain forms has been so fre- 
quently noticed that it cannot be considered as a mere 
chance occurrence, yet it is scarcely susceptible of any 
rational explanation.”’ 
Dr. Abbott is of opinion that the Eskimo occupied New 
Jersey long before the advent of the Red Indian. To 
NATURE 
eee 
this earlier race he especially ascribes the implements 
made of argillite, which he regards as much older than 
the rest. Altogether he has found 4400 implements of 
this material, 233 being well-made drills or perforators 
and scrapers, the others spear-points, fishing-spears, 
arrow-heads, and knife-like implements. They are alto- 
gether ruder than the implements of flint and other 
materials, but 
“ Although it is true of these implements that they are 
of more primitive forms, and therefore probably older 
than the objects made of quartz and jasper, the argument 
does not rest so much upon this greater simplicity, as — 
upon their decomposed condition, their occurrence at 
greater depths in the undisturbed soil, the greater adapta- 
bility of the spears for fishing purposes, and the absence 
of all indications in the deeper soils, of the utilisation of 
the minerals habitually used by the later Indians.” 
“ For these reasons,” he continues (p. 463), “it is claimed 
that we find sufficient evidence in them of a pre-Indian 
people—believed to be the Eskimo—who, it is further 
claimed, are the direct descendants of that still older 
race, the fabricators of the Paleolithic implements of the 
River Drift.” 
To many minds the most interesting question raised 
by Dr. Abbott’s work will be the evidence as to the 
antiquity of man in America. Certainly some of the im- 
plements which he has discovered seem to belong to 
palzolithic types. 
been found in association with remains of the mastodon, 
and he is satisfied that those found inthe Trenton gravels 
must be coeval with the gravels themselves. 
The work concludes with a memoir by Prof. Henry 
Carvill Lewis on the Antiquity and Origin of the Trenton 
Gravel Beds, 
glacial origin, and derived from floods caused by the 
melting of a great continental ice-sheet. 
the contrary, maintains that they are post-glacial—in fact, 
a true river gravel of comparatively recent age. It cannot, 
he maintains, be assigned to the glacial epoch, except by 
assuming that there have been no river gravels deposited 
since that time, an assumption which he regards as quite 
untenable. On the whole, he concludes that there is no 
evidence which would render it necessary to assign to 
those gravels, or of course to the implements found in 
them, an antiquity of more than 10,000 years. 
SACRED MYTHS OF POLYNESIA 
Die heilige Sage der Polynesier—Kosmogonie und 
Theogonie. Von Adolf Bastian. (Leipzig: Brock- 
haus, 1881.) : 
ROF. BASTIAN, on a late journey made to enrich 
the Ethnological Museum of Berlin, stayed a short 
time in New Zealand and the Sandwich Islands, and 
there gathered some interesting information as to native 
traditions, some not yet published, and some which have 
been neglected (if ever met with) by European students. 
The documents now printed in a small volume all 
strengthen the opinion which has for years been gaining 
ground among anthropologists as to the civilisation of the 
Polynesians. It is true that they were found in Capt. 
Cook’s time living in a barbaric state, and their scanty 
clothing and want of metals led superficial observers even 
to class them as savages. But their beliefs and customs 
[Voo. ‘10, 1881 
* 
In some cases he assures us they have © 
Prof. Cook is of opinion that they are of ~ 
Prof. Lewis, on 
