150 THE JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY. 



the main gravel pit about twenty -five feet from the surface, by 

 Dr. Metz, who expresses his full belief that it was in place in 

 the gravels when found. A third slightly flaked stone from the 

 same locality and position had been forwarded to the Peabody 

 Museum at Cambridge. On examining this specimen at a sub- 

 sequent date I found that it has no features that can with certainty 

 be described as artificial. 



It is not from a desire to discredit the observations of Dr. 

 Metz, who is a most reputable and more than usually capable 

 observer, that I raise the question of the verity of these finds. 

 It is essential, in a case where so much depends on the finding 

 of a single specimen, that every observation relating to it should 

 be placed upon record in such a way that, in the future, judg- 

 ments as to the value of the evidence may not be based entirely 

 upon the testimony of a single observer whose acquirements 

 may be restricted or whose preconceived notions may give a 

 very marked bias to his observations and deductions. 



Referring to the Loveland site, it may be remarked in the 

 first place that it seems improbable that man would have occu- 

 pied an area overrun by torrents capable of transporting, and 

 transporting almost exclusively, the coarse materials forming 

 these deposits, and the chances of the preservation of artificial 

 features of specimens brought by floods from the valley above 

 are extremely slight.^ Of course, if man existed here during 

 the glacial period, he may have sought the raw material for his 

 rude arts on the banks of this stream during the periods of 

 of low water and may have thus left the refuse of his shaping 

 operations at almost any point ; but a single specimen cannot, 

 considering possible errors of observation, be regarded as suffi- 

 cient for the establishment of such a conclusion. 



In the second place, I may mention the fact that on carefully 

 examining the Loveland specimen, I found it partly covered with 

 dark, well-compacted earth, resembling the soil of the surface of 



' The edge of the continental ice sheet was, according to Mr. Leverett, only about 

 eight miles distant when these gravels were formed, which makes the probability of 

 finding implements here still slighter. 



