INTER-GLACIAL AMERICAN MAN. 563 



come from the extensive valley of the livei' near which they lie, 

 except, perhaps, the fragments of some rather rare hypogene rocks." 

 As regards the distribution of those terrace deposits, Professor 

 Shaler is still in doubt as to their origin, thouoii he has made beds 

 of this general character a subject of special study for eighteen years. 

 They occur fi-om Virginia northward to Labrador; and wherever 

 found, correspond in structure. " The water- worn character of the 

 pebbles," he i-emarks, " and the approximation to a level of the 

 upper surface of the mass, make it plain that these beds were 

 laid down beneath the water. The entire absence of organic re- 

 mains in the mass pi-oves that it was essentially a lifeless sea in 

 which they were laid down. I am disposed to consider these deposits 

 as formed in the sea, near the foot of the retreating ice-sheet, when 

 the sub-glacial rivers were pouring out the vast quantity of water 

 and waste that clearly were released during the breaking-up of the 

 great ice-time." It is further to be noted, however, that on the one 

 hand, in so far as this is to be regarded as a portion of the great 

 glacial drift, it is not uniformly lifeless in the character of its con- 

 tents; and, on the other hand, the deposits assumed to have been thus 

 laid down in the depths of the ocean, appear to- have been sub- 

 sequently re-arranged or modified by other agencies, so as to suggest 

 a reconsideration of the age assigned to the palieolithic remains which 

 they have disclosed. 



Such is the character of the geological formation in which Dr. 

 Abbott claims to have successfully carried on researches leading to 

 the discovery of examples of American palseolithic art analogous to 

 those of the European drift. Professor Shaler says : "Along with, 

 the pei-fect looking implements figured by Dr. Abbott, which are 

 apparently as clearly artificial as are the well-known remains of the 

 Yalley of the Somme, there are all grades of imperfect fragments, 

 down to the pebbles that are without a trace of chipping;" and in 

 the concluding sentence of a Report on the Age of the Delaware 

 Gravel Beds containing Chipped Pebbles, he remarks : " If these re- 

 mains are really those of man, they prove the existence of inter- 

 glacial man on this part of our shore." Without any such cautious 

 qualification. Professor F. W. Putnam, the exi^erienced cui'ator of the 

 Peabody Museum, states in his report to the Board of Trustees: "From 

 a visit to the locality with Dr. Abbott, I see no reason to doubt the 

 general conclusion he has reached in i-efjard to the existence of m:in 



