TRACES OF GLACIAL MAN IN OHIO. 151 



the terrace, rather than the light-colored, fine-grained calcareous 

 powder characterizing the matrix, such as there is, of the gravel 

 deposits. It seems to me that there is in this observation, made 

 also by Mr. Leverett, and still subject to verification if the speci- 

 men has not yet been cleaned, sufficient ground for raising the 

 question as to whether it is possible that Dr. JVTetz could have 

 mistaken a surface mass, descended into the pit from above, for 

 gravel in place. Dr. Metz, or any other observer not a profes- 

 sional student of geologic phenomena, especially of talus phe- 

 nomena, involving materials subject to resetting after degrada- 

 tion, or to sliding e7i masse, could readily be excused for making 

 a mistake of this kind. Lest this suspicion of error should seem 

 unfounded or uncalled for, I have prepared two sections, Figs, i 

 and 2, which illustrate some of the many dangers besetting the 

 way of gravel searchers. In Fig. i, an ordinary profile, resulting 

 from the removal of gravels for railroad ballast, is shown. De- 

 serted by the workmen for a day or a week, objects from the sur- 

 face deposits. A, may have fallen into the pit resting at B. The 

 sliding of the mass, a b, might cover them to the depth of several 

 feet, C, Fig. 2, and the effects of disturbance upon the surface are 

 soon obscured or obliterated by weathering. Suppose now that Dn 

 Metz, or any one else, should appear upon the scene as the fallen 

 mass is removed and penetrated by workmen, and should witness 

 the uncovering of art forms at D, twenty-five feet beneath the 

 surface of the terrace. It is vain to hold that there is no danger 

 of mistake in such a case; the chances of error are really very 

 great, and a little slip like this in observation would falsify the 

 chronology of human history in this valley to the extent of some 

 thousands of years. 



It may be remarked that the terraces of the Little Miami 

 were for a long period occupied by mound-building tribes whose 

 implements and refuse of manufacture are scattered everywhere, 

 and it is entirely within the range of possibility that such a par- 

 tially worked specimen as this should have been left by them in 

 the surface loams on the site of this pit at Loveland. 



As to the nature of the object itself, a number of questions 



