28 THE JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY. 



foundations, cellars, sewers, wells and graves that no man can, 

 from a limited exposure such as those producing the reported 

 tools necessarily were, speak with certainty of the undisturbed 

 nature of the deposits penetrated. It is doubtful if any one is 

 justified in publishing such observations at all without serious 

 query. Such testimony is liable to fall of its own inherent weak- 

 ness, being absolutely valueless if unsupported by collateral 

 evidence of real weight. It can only be made permanently 

 available to science by the discovery of something unusual or 

 unique with which to couple it, something decidedly un- Indian 

 in character or type, as for example the two skulls now in the 

 Peabody Museum. These objects and the antler knife -handle 

 exhibited with them may be alluded to as the only finds so far 

 made at Trenton, having of themselves the least potentiality as 

 proof and these skulls and this knife -handle must yet be 

 subjected to the rigid examination made necessary by the 

 importance of the conclusions to be based upon them. 



Something may now be said concerning the art remains upon 

 which this discussion hinges, and upon which conclusions of the 

 greatest importance to anthropology are supposed to depend. 

 Let us pass over all that has been said with regard to their 

 manner of occurrence and association with the gravels and ask 

 them simply what story they tell of themselves. Does this 

 story, so far as we are able clearly to read it, speak of a great 

 antiquity and a peculiar culture, or does it hint rather at vital 

 weaknesses in the position taken by the advocates of these ideas ? 

 We shall see. The history of the utilization of rudely flaked 

 stones in the attempt to establish a gravel man in America has 

 never been written, but as read between the lines of paleolithic 

 literature, it runs about as follows : The theory of a very rude 

 and ancient people, having a unique culture and certain peculiar 

 art limitations, was developed in Europe many years ago in a 

 manner well known and often rehearsed. This people was 

 associated with the ice age in Europe, and this epoch, with its 

 moraines and till and sedimented gravels, was found to have 

 been repeated in America. It was the most natural thing 



