104 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XII. No. 291 



Paleolithic implements, concerning which there can be no doubt, 

 have not been discovered in abundance as yet, but Professor 

 Wright's belief proves to have been well founded. Dr. C. L. 

 Metz of Madisonville, O., has discovered two specimens which set 

 the matter at rest. Both were found at significant depths, one of 

 •them nearly thirty feet below the surface. The region where 

 found is one characterized by immense gravel-deposits of glacial 

 age and origin. 



They show that in Ohio, as well as on the Atlantic coast, man 

 was an inhabitant before the close of the glacial period. We can 

 henceforth speak with confidence of interglacial man in Ohio. 

 It is facts like these which give archseological significance to the 

 ■present fruitful inquiries concerning the date of the glacial epoch in 

 North America. 



Mr. Hilborne T. Cresson has discovered two chipped implements 

 ■of argillite which he found in situ, at a depth of several feet from 

 the surface, in railroad cuttings through the old terrace of the 

 Delaware River near Claymont, Del. The geological position of 

 these specimens will excite discussion, but their great age will not be 

 ■questioned. Of particular interest, in relation to discoveries in the 

 gravels at Trenton and Ohio, is the discovery of a large flint imple- 

 ment found by Mr. Cresson in the glacial gravel in Jackson County, 

 Ind. 



From evidence so far obtained, it seems that on either seaboard 

 paleolithic man lived in great numbers, and that as a coast- 

 ■dweller he pre-eminently flourished. In the valley of the Delaware 

 River paleolithic man has left such abundant traces of his former 

 presence, in the form of rudely fashioned stone implements, that 

 for long they were considered as the hasty or unfinished work of 

 the later Indians. 



As the first to point out what is now maintained by competent 

 archaeologists to be their real significance, I may be pardoned for 

 devoting the conclusion of my address to a consideration of that 

 region, — the Delaware valley, — so far as its physical character and 

 the traces of prehistoric man found there have a bearing on -the 

 ■question of the antiquity of man in America. 



The question may now be asked, What is a paleolithic imple- 

 ment? It is not very readily defined, as there is considerable va- 

 riation in the shape ; but, as I understand the significance of the 

 term, it is properly applied to coarsely chipped masses of flinty 

 rock, upon which a distinctly designed cutting edge is formed, to 

 which is often added an acute point. Furthermore, they show un- 

 mistakable evidence of antiquity by the weathering of their sur- 

 faces ; and they are found as a rule, but not necessarily always, in 

 deposits of glacial or river drift with which they agree in age. 



How far do these Trentonian implements meet with these re- 

 quirements.'' 



My own impressions of their true character was not suddenly 

 reached. The evidence of other kind, of the antiquity of the In- 

 dian, led me to consider them as rude objects made for some trivial 

 purpose and discarded. Later, I became convinced that they were 

 •older than ordinary surface-found relics, and assumed that the In- 

 dian of history commenced his career in this valley while in the 

 paleolithic stage of culture. 



Thus, while pursuing my collecting of Indian relics, it was grad- 

 ually forced upon my mind that these rude implements were more 

 intimately associated with the gravel than with the surface of the 

 ground and the relics of the Indians found upon it. 



Acting upon this, I continued for two years to examine most 

 •carefully both the surface of our fields and every exposure of the 

 underlying gravels ; and in June, 1876, after having found several 

 ■chipped implements in situ, expressed the opinion that the Dela- 

 ware River, " now occupying a comparatively small and shallow 

 channel, once flowed at an elevation of nearly fifty feet above its 

 present level ; and it was when such a mighty stream as this, that 

 man first gazed upon its waters, and lost those rude weapons in its 

 swift current, that now, in the beds of gravel which its floods have 

 deposited, are alike the puzzle and delight of the archffiologist. 

 Had these first-comers, like the troglodytes of France, convenient 

 caves to shelter them, doubtless we should have their better 

 wrought implements of bone to tell more surely the story of their 

 -ancient sojourn here ; but, wanting them, their history is not alto- 

 gether lost, and in the rude weapons, now deeply embedded in the 



river's banks, we learn, at least, the fact of the presence, in the dis- 

 tant past, of an earlier people than the Indian." 



Thus it will be seen that I have been fairly cautious in my state- 

 ments, and slow in reaching any conclusions with reference to these 

 implements which separated them from ordinary Indian relics. 



But, admitting that a given class of stone implements is charac- 

 teristic of a given deposit of gravel (and I think we must admit 

 this now), what is the geological history of this deposit? Is it too 

 recent to be of special import, or too ancient to be of archaeologi- 

 cal significance ? Both views have been held, and neither proves 

 tenable. That the former view should have found supporters is 

 indeed strange. Certainly there is now no movement of the gravel 

 by the river, whatever its condition or freshet stage ; and certainly, 

 if these rude forms were of identical origin with common Indian 

 relics, then rude and elaborate alike — jasper, quartz, porphyry, and 

 slate together ; axes, spears, pottery, and ornaments, all of which 

 are found upon the surface — should have gradually become com- 

 mingled with the gravel, even to great depths. Any disturbance 

 that would bury one would inhume alike the various forms of neo- 

 lithic implements. Such, however, is not the case. 



How old, and not how recent, are the Delaware valley, or, as 

 they are now known, Trenton gravels ? This, it is all-important, 

 should be definitely determined. A clear light has been thrown up- 

 on these questions by G. F. Wright, who shows that these gravels 

 are the last important result of the glacial epoch, the direct result 

 of the melting of the glaciers, as they retired northward ; and that, 

 while this was in progress, the rude implements of paleolithic man 

 were lost and embedded in them. 



Admitting this, how long ago did it take place ? 



If we accept the most moderate estimate of the length of post- 

 glacial time, some six thousand years, we have of interglacial time 

 (i.e., between the first and second epochs) from eighteen thousand to 

 sixty thousand years ; and to this, as I understand the matter, must 

 be added the long stretch of time during which the second epoch of 

 cold continued. Assuming, therefore, that geologists have made 

 no mistake, archaeology has time enough and to spare. At no 

 time was the continent uninhabitable, however thick and wide- 

 reaching the ice, or deeply submerged the lower-lying areas. Still 

 there was land enough for mammalian life in all its glory, and it 

 flourished at the very foot of the advancing ice-sheet, and re-entered 

 every tract as the glaciers withdrew. Then we had the mastodon 

 and mammoth, reindeer and bison, musk-ox and moose, and man 

 familiar with them all. 



Having made clear, I trust, what is meant by paleolithic man, 

 and shown also that he luas a fact and is not a fancy, the question 

 naturally arises, What was his fate ? Did he, like the mastodon, 

 become extinct, or has he descendants still living on this continent ? 

 If the paleolithic implements were strictly confined to the gravel- 

 deposits, like fossils in the underlying marl-beds, then, as it seems 

 to me, we would be unable to refer paleolithic man to any branch 

 of the human race now alive ; but, as a matter of fact, there is no 

 such break, — no evidence of an hiatus of greater or less duration 

 between paleolithic man and the Indian. The former continued to 

 dwell here until the last pebble of the great gravel-deposit had been 

 laid down, and possibly into the soil-making period, but not now, 

 as paleolithic man. The significant advance to the manufacture of 

 more specialized implements took place ; the rude argillite paleo- 

 lith, the same in form the world over, giving way to spears and other 

 definite forms. The form of the product altered, but the same mate- 

 rial, argillite, continued in use. There was no pottery, no polished 

 stone, little if any attempt at ornamentation ; still, when we com- 

 pare these later objects of argillite with the earlier and original 

 patterns, we see what a tremendous forward stride had been 

 made. 



Next we have to consider the important fact that the flint imple- 

 ments known as Indian relics belong to the superficial black soil, 

 while at the base of this deposit of soil the argillite implements 

 occur in greatest abundance. 



This briefly covers the range of evidence, first, that paleolithic 

 man did not become extinct ; second, that his descendants attained 

 to an advanced degree of culture in the land of their forefathers. 

 What, then, was this people's subsequent career? Were it not for 

 the three skulls found in the Trenton gravels, we could still main- 



