1 6 THE JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY. 



occurrence or non-occurrence of rudely flaked stones or of any 

 artificial objects whatsoever in the normal gravels of the Dela- 

 ware Valley, and it therefore becomes necessary to examine 

 somewhat critically such of the published evidence as seems to 

 be seriously affected by these recent observations. 



It may be stated in beginning that no one disputes the glacial 

 age of the Trenton gravels. The question to be discussed is 

 simply this, — is the evidence satisfactory that works of art have 

 been found in these gravels? Nothing else need be asked or 

 answered. I do not take up this subject because I love con- 

 troversy; disputation is really most distasteful to me. It happens 

 that under the Bureau of Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion I have been assigned to the work of making a survey of the 

 archeology of the Atlantic coast region in which large areas, 

 especially in states south of Mason and Dixon's line, remained 

 almost untouched by investigators, and two years have been 

 consumed mainly in these southern areas. But there are ques- 

 tions that refuse to be confined to definite geographic limits, and 

 evidence secured in one section is sometimes found to bear so 

 directly and forcibly upon problems pertaining primarily to other 

 sections that the student of these problems must perforce become 

 a free lance, and unhesitatingl}^ enter any province promising 

 results of value, howsoever fully occupied it may be by other 

 investigators. One of the most interesting and important ques- 

 tions growing out of the study of American archeology has, as 

 we have seen, arisen in the Delaware Valley, and the turn taken 

 by some of my work in the south and west is such that I cannot 

 pass this question by without consideration. The necessity of 

 taking up the subject of glacial man became more and more 

 apparent as the years passed on, and people continued to say to 

 me, "You must go to Trenton ; we are not satisfied with the 

 present status of the question there ; the evidence arrayed in 

 favor of the theory of a paleolithic gravel man needs critical 

 examination." 



The difficulty of taking up and re-examining evidence, of 

 which the record only remains, is, however, very great, since in 



