24 THE JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY. 



(cretaceous). The question was finally settled by the discovery 

 of artificially shaped stones in and beneath the deposits. 



Again, an implement bearing deposit of gravel was recently 

 discovered by the late Miss F. E. Babbitt at Little Falls, 

 Minnesota, and sufficient (a very little) digging was done to 

 satisfy the discoverer, and all paleolithic archeologists as well, 

 that the objects were really imbedded in the glacial gravels. In 

 the summer of 1892 I visited the place and carried a trench 

 twenty feet horizontally into the terrace face on the "implement 

 bed" level before encountering the gravels in place. The talus 

 deposits were several feet thick, and were of such a nature that 

 their true character could not be determined without careful and 

 extensive trenching. The whole talus deposit was here well 

 stocked with Indian quartz quarry-shop rejects, which were as 

 usual of paleolithic types, and it was but natural that Miss 

 Babbitt's conclusions, although based as they necessarily were 

 upon inexpert- observations, backed by such well known "types" 

 of "implements" should be unhesitatingly accepted by believers. 



The occurrence of these telling examples of the deceptive 

 appearance of re-set gravels would seem to justify and empha- 

 size the conviction created by a critical examination of the two 

 leading so-called paleolithic sites at Trenton, that Dr. Abbott, 

 notwithstanding his asseverations to the contrary, has been 

 deceived. Very strong support, it seems to me, is given to this 

 conclusion by the recently published opinion of the late Dr. H, 

 Carvill Lewis, a glacialist familiar with the Trenton region, and 

 with the work of Dr. Abbott at the period of his paleolithic 

 castle building. Dr. Lewis is reported to have maintained 

 before an open meeting of the Academy of Science in Philadel- 

 phia " that what Dr. Abbott believed to be undisturbed layers 

 (of gravel) were those of an ancient talus." ^ This remark 

 may refer to both the main sites — the one at the railroad 

 station and the other at the river front — or possibly only 

 to the former. I have also heard it stated that that eminent 

 scholar. Dr. Leidy, who must have had ample opportunities of 



'Brinton, D. G., Science, Oct. 28, p. 249. 



