66 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XXI. No. 522 



semblance in all particulars which it bears to those unqupstioned 

 palaolithic implements [which he exhibited beside it] of the Old 

 World." This im|)lemeDt is not a '"reject,"' but is a finished im- 

 plement, with the secoudary chippings all around the edge. The 

 cuts, reproduced from photographs, on pages 252 and 253 of my 

 volume on " Mau and the Glacial Period," perfect as they are, 

 by no means do the implement justice. 



r promptly gave an account of this discovery in The Nation in 

 its issue for April, 24, 1890, and repeated it in substance with 

 some additional particulars on page 620 of the third edition of my 

 volume on "The Ice Age in North America." The account in 

 my later volume is still more condensed. The detailed evidence 

 is published in Tract No. 75 of the Western Reserve Historical 

 Society, Cleveland, Ohio, which contains the report of the meet- 

 ing when Mr. Mills was present and gave his own testimony. This 

 was held Dec. 12, 1890. 



The facts are these : There is a glacial gravel terrace in New- 

 comerstown at the mouth of Buckhorn Creek, where it enters 

 the larger valley of the Tuscarawas River. There can be no 

 question about the glacial age of this terrace. It is continuous up 

 the river to the terminal moraine. Its surface is about 35 feet 

 above the flood-plain of the Tuscarawas ; it consists of stratified 

 material, containing many granitic pebbles and much granitic 

 gravel. The deposit at Newcomerstown extends over many acres, 

 having been protected from erosion in the recess at the mouth of 

 Buckhorn Creek. Through the middle of this deposit the railroad 

 has cut its road-bed, and for years had been appropriating the 

 gravel for ballast. 



Mr. Mills is an educated business man, who had been a pupil 

 in geology of Professor Orton of the State University, and had 

 with him done considerable field-work in geology. Mr. Mills's 

 character and reputation are entirely above suspicion. In addi- 

 tion to his business he took a laudable interest in the collection of 

 Indian relics, and had in his office thousands of flint implements, 

 collected by him and his associates in the vicinity, who had been 

 organized into an archsological society. His office was but a 

 few yards' distant from the gravel pit from which I have said the 

 railroad had been for so many years obtaining ballast. The per- 

 pendicular face of this bank of gravel as it was exposed from 

 time to time by the excavations of the railroad men was fre- 

 quently examined by Mr. Mills, not with special reference to find- 

 ing implements, for that thought had not entered his mind, but 

 for the sake of obtaining specimens of coral, which occasionally 

 occurred in the gravel. While engaged in one of these rounds on 

 the 27th of October, 1889, he found this specimen projecting from 

 a fresh exposure of the perpendicular bank. 15 feet below the 

 surface, and, according to his custom, recorded the facts at the 

 time in his note-book. There was no lack of discrimination in his 

 observations, or of distinctness in his memory. There is no possi- 

 bility of any doubt about the undisturbed character of the gravel 

 from which Mr. Mills took the implement with his own hands. 

 The photograph of the bank, to which I refer in my volume, is not, 

 as I say, of the same one from which this implement was taken, 

 but it is so like it that it illustrates the character of the problem 

 just as well. I will, however, speedily prepare an illustration from 

 photographs of the terrace at Newcomerstown. 



These facts, submitted at the meeting of the Western Reserve 

 Historical Society referred to, were fully detailed upon the spot 

 to myself and a party of gentlemen, consisting of Judge C. C. 

 Baldwin, E. A. Angell, Esq., Wm. Cushing, Esq., all lawyers 

 of eminence, and Mr. David Baldwin, who accompanied me in a 

 visit to the place on the 11th of April, 1890. We had all the 

 opportunity to question and cross-question that could be desired. 

 Now this is only one case, but it comes in as cumulative evidence 

 with other cases; that of Dr. Metz of Madisonville being almost 

 equally good. I will only make a further passing reference to 

 the evidence at Trenton. Dr. Abbott is not the only competent 

 person who has discovered implements at Trenton in undisturbed 

 gravel. In addition to those mentioned in my communication 

 for Nov. 11, Mr. Lucien Carr has specifically staled in two differ- 

 ent meetings of the Boston Society of Natural History (see their 

 Proceedings for Jan. 19, 1881) that he, in company with Professor 

 J. D. Whitney, found several implements at Trenton, one of which 



was in place "under such circumstances that it must have been 

 deposited at the time the containing bed was laid down." 



I submit that this evidence is neither "chaotic" or "unsatis- 

 factory," but is as specific and definite and as worthy to be be- 

 lieved as almost anything any expert in this country, or any coun- 

 try, can be expected to produce. If the public cannot be con- 

 vinced by such evidence, it is doubtful if any expert will be able 

 to convince them. "If they believe not Moses and the prophets, 

 neither will they believe, though one rise from the dead." 



No one will have any objections to Mr. Holmes beginning the 

 investigations anew, but many will object if, when he makes dis- 

 coveries of relics of man in glacial deposits, he shall claim that 

 they are the first discoveries of the kind which have been made 

 in America. G. Frederick Weight. 



Oberlln, O., Jan. 27. 



Palsolithic Man in North America. 

 If the weight of opinion may be considered as having settled 

 any question, the fact that in some part of the world man once 

 existed in so low a stage of culture as to have possessed only im- 

 plements rudely chipped out of stone may be regarded as estab- 

 lished. If this so-called " palseolithic man" existed anywhere 

 else, why may we not suppose that he has lived on this continent 

 also ? To hold the contrary is to imply that this part of the world 

 was not peopled until mankind had developed into the neolithic 

 stage of culture. With such an a priori probability, therefore, 

 of finding proofs of bis existence here as well as elsewhere 

 archaeologists have applied themselves to the task of searching 

 for such evidence in this country. But when archaeologists make 

 use of the term " implements rudely chipped out of stone," they 

 have in mind certain well-known and perfectly defined objects. 

 They do not mean pebbles showing the marks where certain por- 

 tions have been casually detached by blows. By the term "palaeo- 

 lithic implement " the instructed archseologist intends certain 

 definite and fi.xed types of chopping or cutting utensils, which 

 have been found in large quantities, more especially in western 

 Europe, both in gravel beds of ancient quaternary rivers and 

 sealed up in caverns by overljing layers of stalagmite. These 

 chipped implements have a fades, or family likeness, that is un- 

 mistakable, and they are accompanied by the remains of certain 

 extinct animals, which furnish a guarantee of their great an- 

 tiquity. They are implements perfect, complete, and finished in 

 themselves, and not merely objects rudely blocked out to a gen- 

 eral outline of the shape intended to be given to them by subse- 

 quent tod. They are entirely unlike those rude beginnings of 

 implements which were intended to be perfected by being ground 

 down to a polished surface. Such unfinished articles are quite as 

 common as the polished stone axes themselves, both in Europe 

 and in this country, but no competent archaeologist would ever 

 confound one with the other. The general appeai'ance of a series 

 of palaeolithic implements and of a set of unfinished, chipped, 

 neolithic implements is entirely different. Thustheterm "palaeo- 

 lithic implement" has become a perfectly established technical 

 term, and archaeologists, understanding well its full meaning, 

 have accordingly sought for examples of it in the river-gravels of 

 North America. They have confidently asserted that they have 

 found such, not in large quantities, it is true, but sufficiently to 

 establish the fact that palaeolithic man lived here also, as well as 

 in Europe, Asia, and Africa. 



But quite recently there has been put forth by a little knot of 

 men, principally connected with the U. S. Geological Survey, the 

 claim that this conclusion is entirely wrong ; that no palasolithic 

 implement has ever been discovered in this country, and that 

 those objects which are claimed to be such are merely " rejects," 

 or imperfect or unfinished articles left behind by the natives who 

 were found in possession of this continent, and who were then 

 living in "the age of polished stone." 



"With that half -wisdom half -experience gives" these geolo- 

 gists, whose archasological studies have been limited to our native 

 Indian tribes and their remains, have had the assurance to main- 

 tain that the so called " paleeolithics " of this country are nothing 

 more or less than what are sometimes styled " tm-tle-backs," or 

 those unfinished polished celts, one of whose sides has had less 



