DECEMBER 3, 1897] SCIENCE. 827 
the glacial age ; such deposits as accumulate 
in depressions, or along the faces of bluffs 
and banks subject to crumbling and sliding. 
When later it was realized that the ques- 
tions involved, the nice discriminations to 
be made in collecting this evidence, were 
really geologic rather than archeologic a 
new phase of the investigation was initiated 
and geologists were asked to participate in 
the examinations. It was imperatively 
demanded that the gravel should be re- 
examined and the evidence sifted and 
placed on a safe footing. In meeting this 
demand for re-examination of their evi- 
dence the advocates of an American paleo- 
lithic man have claimed that the criticisms 
made were to be classed with those encoun- 
tered by Boucher de Perthes when he began 
to present his evidence regarding early man 
in Europe; that such criticisms meet every 
advance of thought. But the cases are by 
no means parallel. The discoveries of 
Boucher were not acceptable because of 
their revolutionary character with respect 
to accepted beliefs. On the other hand, the 
Trenton determinations were popular and 
almost universally accepted as final until 
attention was called to the true nature of 
the objects found, and especially to the un- 
satisfactory methods pursued in collecting 
evidence. The climax came when it was 
understood that the advocates of a glacial 
paleolithic man were gathering all classes 
of rudely flaked stones from the surface of _ 
the country generally (entirely disregard- 
ing an Indian occupation) and employing 
them to establish a peculiar theoretic cul- 
ture for America. 
It was not conservatism, and especially it 
was not conservatism in religious thought, 
that led such men as Powell, Brinton, Mc- 
Gee, Chamberlin, Salisbury, Mercer, Mason 
and others intimately acquainted with the 
field of investigation to seriously question 
the methods and the evidence. The charge 
of conservatism must rather be urged against 
Fia. 1. Section of the Trenton gravels showing relation of productive to non-productive profiles. 
