TRACES OF GLACIAL MAN IN OHIO. I 57 



finally upon record, an excellent thing to do, appeared in 

 Scie7ice for February 3, 1893. 



The question may now be raised as to the value to be attached 

 to this find, since the observation is one upon which much is 

 made to depend. In September, 1892, I visited Newcomerstown 

 and examined the site of the discovery of this interesting object, 

 which is shown in the accompanying plate. The town is built 

 along the margin and on the slopes of a glacial terrace, formed 

 about the end of a spur of the hills which projects into the valley 

 on the north side of the Tuscarawas. The exposures of the 

 gravels in the railway ballast pit are excellent, showing them to 

 be ordinary irregularly bedded deposits of sand and gravel. It 

 is a sufficiently promising place for the recovery of such imple- 

 ments or objects as the gravels may happen to contain. The 

 formations are very loosely bedded, and it takes but a short time 

 after the desertion of the site by workmen, especially if the 

 weather is wet, to cover the exposures with talus. Large masses 

 are liable to fall, carrying with them all objects resting upon and 

 near the surface. A collector not on his guard, or not appre- 

 ciating the nature or significance of finds, might readily, when 

 afterwards questioned about the matter, give a faulty diagnosis 

 of the conditions of discovery. The case in hand is one in which 

 double assurance of verity is called for, yet it is one in which 

 uncertainty resulting from the lack of experience and possible, I 

 may say probable, carelessness of the collector is augmented 

 by the treachery of the gravels. This uncertainty is again 

 emphasized by the discovery, made at the time of my visit, 

 that this terrace is probably an old Indian village site, and cer- 

 tainly a shop site where flint was flaked, many rejects and flakes 

 occurring upon the very brink of the pit. Of course I found no 

 duplicate of the specimen in question, for duplicates are rarm aves ; 

 but I saw enough to convince me of the danger of hastily and 

 unqualifiedly making use of the observation made by Mr. Mills, 

 especially since the material of which this object is made occurs 

 in the neighborhood, and must have been used by the Indians 

 inhabiting this site. 



