INVESTIGATION VERSUS PROPAGANDISM 329 



of previous gains by the shearing away of more than has been 

 built up since the last shear. Besides this, the time between 

 meander-shears is also more or less uncertain. Just what the 

 actual amount of accretion was in each intershear interval, in 

 the case in hand, can only be determined by an inspection of the 

 accretion layers themselves, if indeed their condition permits this. 

 Even that may not suffice for a positive determination, but it is 

 worthy of trial. Herein lies one of the calls for further investi- 

 gation before anything purporting to be a final conclusion is 

 put forth. 



The method of inquiry here suggested, in spite of its limita- 

 tions, clearly has these good points: (i) It begins with what is 

 best known and forces a recognition of the formative group of 

 deposits at the surface; (2) it suggests a specific kind of examina- 

 tion of the beds below this working group for specific data; (3) it 

 invites a very critical study of the effects of transfer from one 

 formative deposit to another under conditions whose possibilities 

 are both great and highly varied; (4) it is well suited to throw 

 light on the significant fact that, while only a very small fraction 

 of the total number of bones belonging to any individual skeleton 

 have been found in the deposits in question, implying that the 

 great majority have somehow been carried away or ' otherwise 

 disposed of, some of these are yet not necessarily much worn; 

 (5) it is well suited to explain why much-worn material and little- 

 worn material occur together; and (6) it makes altogether natural 

 a gradation from the older to the younger content, attended with 

 intermixture. 



If the normal mode of formation of creek deposits were the 

 only consideration to be weighed in the matter, the six feet of the 

 deposit might perhaps be so handled in interpretation as to plau- 

 sibly represent the stream aggradation during all the time between 

 the Aftonian interglacial epoch and the present, though that 

 would seem to be putting a very heavy strain on the probabili- 

 ties; at least the deposits might not yield any demonstrative 

 evidence to the contrary. So far as it goes, therefore, the 

 method gives a possible basis of reconciliation between the import 

 of the fossils in the basal part of the six feet, interpreted as very 



