32 THE JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY. 



argellite points is readily accounted for by the nature of the 

 material. It was the only stone of the region well adapted to 

 the manufacture of long blades or projectile points. Jasper, 

 quartz and flint have such minute cleavage that, save in rare 

 cases, small implements only could be made from them. Their 

 peculiar manner of occurrence, described at so much length by 

 Dr. Abbott,^ has been given undue consideration and weight. 

 The phenomena observed may all be accounted for as a result of 

 the vicissitudes of aboriginal life and occupation within the last 

 few hundred years as fully and satisfactorily as by jumping 

 thousands of years backward into the unknown. 



Whatsoever real support there may be for the " Eskimo " 

 theory, either in the published or the unpublished evidence, it is 

 apparent that under the present system of solitary and inexpert 

 research, the scientific world will gain little that it can utilize 

 without distrust and danger. Whatsoever may be the final out- 

 come — which outcome is bound to be the truth — it is clear that 

 there is little in the present evidence to warrant the separa- 

 tion of a " paleolithic " and an " Eskimo " period of art from 

 that of the Indian. 



That the art remains of the Trenton region are essentially a 

 unit, having no natural separation into time, culture or stock 

 groups, is easily susceptible of demonstration. I have already 

 presented strong reasons for concluding that all the finds upon 

 the Trenton sites are from the surface or from recent deposits, 

 and that all may reasonably be assigned to the Indian. A find 

 has recently been made which furnishes full and decisive evi- 

 dence upon this point. At Point Pleasant, on the Delaware, 

 some twenty-five miles above Trenton, there are outcrops of 

 argillite, and here have been discovered recently the shop sites 

 upon which this stone was worked. There are two features of 

 these shops to which the closest attention must be given. The 

 first is that they are manifestly modern; they are situated on 

 the present flood plain of the Delaware, and but a few feet above 

 average water level, the glacial terrace here being some forty or 



'Abbott, C. C. Popular Science Monthly, Dec, 1889. 



