GLACIAL MAN IN THE TRENTON GRAVELS. 29 



possible that these discoveries should carry with them the sug- 

 gestion that man may have existed here as in Europe during 

 that epoch, and that his culture was of closely corresponding 

 grade. These were legitimate inferences and warranted the 

 instituting of careful researches, but it was a dangerous sugges- 

 tion to put into the minds of enthusiastic novices with fertile 

 brains and ready pens. The idea was hardly transplanted to 

 American soil before finds began to be made. The so-called 

 " types " of European paleoliths suggested the lines upon which 

 finds here should be made, and everything in the way of flaked 

 stones connected directly or indirectly with the glacial gravels 

 which had not yet been fully credited to and absorbed by the 

 inconvenient Indian, was seized upon as representing the ancient 

 time and its hypothetic people and culture. In the early days 

 of the investigation the various rude forms of flaked stones, 

 resulting from failures in manufacture, had not been studied, and 

 were shrouded in convenient mystery, and they thus became the 

 foundation of the new archeologic dynasty in America, the 

 dynasty of the turtle -back. Dr. Abbott states in his first work^ 

 that these rude " implements " are not especially characteristic 

 of any one locality, but seem to be scattered uniformly over the 

 state. Specimens of every type, he says, are " found upon the 

 surface, and are plowed up every spring and autumn ; but this 

 in no way militates against the opinion that these ruder forms 

 are far older than the well-chipped jasper and beautifully-polished 

 porphyry stone-work."^ At that stage of the investigation it was 

 not at all necessary that a specimen should come from the gravels 

 in place or from any given depth, since the " type " was sup- 

 posed to be easily recognized and was a sufificient means of 

 settling the question of age. 



Rude " implements " were called for and they were found. 

 The only requirements were that they should not be of well- 

 known Indian types, that they should be rude and have some 

 sort of resemblance to what were known as paleolithic implements 



■Abbott, C. C. The Stone Age in N. J., Sm. Rep. 1875, p. 247. 

 = Ibid, p. 252. 



