Ii6 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XV. No. 367 



— D. Lotlu'op Company have just ready ' ' Eggs : Facts and 

 Fancies about Them, ' ' a book brimful of information about eggs, 

 though not a cook-book, compiled by Miss Ann a. Barrows 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



re requested to he as brief as possible. The ivriter's na me 

 4S in all cases required as proof of good faitli. 



The editor will be glad to publish any queries consonant with the character 

 ^f the Journal. 



On requfst, twenty copies of the number containing his communication loill 

 'he furnished free to any correspondent. 



Supposed Aboriginal Fish-Weirs in Naaman's Creek, near 

 Claymont, Del. 



Incorrect and exaggerated accounts of the aboriginal remains 

 discovered in Naaman's Ci-eek, near its mouth, having appeared 

 in varioiis scientific and other journals, by which the public have 

 been led to believe that remains of a people akin to the lake-dwell- 

 ers of Europe were found in alluvial deposits at the place referred 

 to, let me here state that the pile-dwelling theoi-y is all bosh, 

 and any such statements were made without my knowledge or 

 consent. My friend, Professor Haynes of Boston, when he wi-ote 

 his article on the prehistoric archaeology of North America for 

 the ' ' Narrative and Critical History of North America, ' ' unfor- 

 tunately copied the atrociously garbled version of my letter pub- 

 lished in the American Antiquarian of November, 1887, from 

 which the false impressions i-efeiTed to have arisen. In the letter 

 which I sent to the editor of the Antiquarian, I never made use 

 of the term ' ' river-dwelling sites, ' ' nor did I suggest that the 

 wooden stakes ' ' once supported shelters of early man that were 

 erected a few feet above the water. ' ' I distinctly stated that I 

 •coincided with the fisherman in his suggestion about the spot 

 having been a fishing-place of the Indians ; and luckily this por- 

 tion of my account has been published correctly, as by reference 

 "to p. 364 of that magazine, for November, 1887, will more fully 

 appear. 



Wlien I heard that Professor Haynes was preparing an account 

 of my work carried on for the Peabody Museum, Harvard Uni- 

 versity, I wi-ote him a letter, calling attention to the fact that I 

 'deemed the wooden piles or stakes to be fish-weirs, enclosing him 

 at the same time a typical collection from thi-ee spots in the 

 creek's bed that had been found fruitful, and for the sake of 

 convenience designated, at Professor Putnam's suggestion, sta- 

 tions A, B, and C, so that each implement dredged up (by hand) 

 could be located on my note-book and working plan. For some 

 inexplicable reason. Professor Haynes seems to have been more 

 impressed with the American Antiquarian' s version of the affair 

 than my own statements, adopting as his own my suggestions of 

 the fish- weir theory, which but i-e-echoes that of the fisherman who 

 discovered the wooden stake-ends. I also requested in this letter 

 that the proof-sheets relating to my work for the Peabody Mu- 

 seum be forwarded for con-ection; but in Professor Haynes' s 

 reply to me he states, that as the publishers wanted his manu- 

 script immediately, a portion of it being already in press, this 

 would be impossible. I make these remarks with no intention 

 of attacking the statements of Professor Haynes, for whom I 

 have the most sincere regard. I simply desire to show that he 

 has been misled by following the American Antiquarian's ver- 

 sion of the find, and suggest that I should have been consulted as to 

 ■the correctness of the details given, especially in so important a 

 work as the ' ' Nareative and Ci-itical History of America. ' ' Any 

 one who will take the trouble to read p. 364 of the American 

 Antiquarian will also see not only the errors that I have already 

 corrected, but others still more ridiculous, where, after my return 

 from . Fi-ance, I am quoted as again having visited ' ' the flats in 

 the cave at Naaman' s Ci'eek. ' ' Wliat connection there is between 

 a cave and the mud flats around the mouth of Naaman' s Creek, 

 I am at a loss to understand. It is evident that such statements 

 as these are the result of either gi-oss carelessness on the part of 

 the editor of the American Antiquarian, or else may be referred 

 to his printer. 



My object in stating in my letter to the Antiquarian that dur- 

 ing my visit to Europe I saw wooden specimens in archaeological 

 collections from the Swiss lake-dwellings was because the dress- 

 ing of these pile structures with stone implements recalled those 



I had remarked upon the ends of wooden posts or stakes in the 

 bed of Naaman's Creek, near its mouth (not "on the Delaware 

 marshes," as erroneously set forth in the American Antiquarian). 

 This reference to a similarity of the stone axe dressings on the 

 wooden piles used by the lake-dwellers of Europe to those of the 

 wooden stake-ends found in alluvial deposits at Naaman's Creek, 

 in my opinion, has occasioned all those glowing accounts which 

 have lately been published by enthusiastic collectors, and jour- 

 nalists, in regard to " Remains of an Indian City at the Mouth 

 of Naaman's Creek," "Lake Dwellings and Villages in Amer- 

 ica," "Indian Huts in the Naaman's Creek Marshes," etc., — 

 most glorious accounts, indeed, in which "Keller's Lake Dwell- 

 ei-s of Europe ' ' has been largely cbawn upon, and even added 

 to. Let me now make another attempt to give a con-ect version 

 of the work carried on at Naaman's Creek for the Peabody 

 Museum, loath as I am to spoil the romantic ideas that have 

 emanated from certain enthusiasts in regard to them. I shall 

 simply here repeat a copy of my letter sent to the American An- 

 tiquarian several years ago (.Oct. 20, 1887), allowing the readers 

 of Science, and others interested in the subject, to compare this 

 correct statement with the incorrect version already refen-ed to. 



"In 1870 a fisherman living in the village of Marcus Hook, 

 Pemrsylvania, gave me some spear and arrow heads chipped from 

 a dense argillite, as well as other rude implements of a prehis- 

 toric people which he had found on the edge of some extensive 

 mud flats that border Naaman's Ci-eek, a small tributary of the 

 Delaware River. The finder stated that while cat-fishing among 

 the reeds and spatter docks he had noticed here and there the ends 

 of logs or stakes protruding from the mud ; that they seemed to 

 be placed in rows (to use his own words, ' they stuck out just 

 . above the mud, were as rotten as punk, and he could see no reason 

 why they'd been placed there by white folks ; more than likely the 

 Indians in old times usem 'em to hitch their canoes to when spear- 

 ing fish, and that was the reason the darts, axes, and such like, 

 were found around there') . A visit to the place made a few days 

 aftenvard, in company with this simple-minded old fisherman, 

 disclosed the ends of much deca.yed ends of stakes, or wooden 

 structures, proti-uding here and there above the mud, just as he 

 had stated, confiti-ming- what I had before heard in regard to the 

 wooden structures from a pot-hunter, or professional reed-bird 

 guimer, who encountered them while poling his skiff off the 

 marsh into the creek after the water had fallen somewhat on the 

 ebb tide. At that time (1870) I coincided in the fisherman's 

 views about the spot having been a fishing-place of the Indians, 

 as the finds of argillite implements seemed only to exist in the 

 neighborhood of the wooden structures or stake-ends. More 

 mature deliberation, based upon hand-dredging and excavation, 

 made since my first visit (1870) . only serves to confirm my opin- 

 ion that they were fish-weirs. 



' ' Professional duties did not permit me at this time (1870) to 

 give the matter serious attention, and it was not until my return 

 from France in 1880, whither I had gone to pursue studies at the 

 Ecole des Beaux Arts and Ecole d' Antlu-opologie, that I again 

 visited the spot on the edge of the mud flat at Naaman' s Creek 

 (the north-east side of the mud flat referred to forms a part of 

 the banks of the creek, near its mouth) , where the finds had been 

 made. While abroad I studied, in spare moments, many archas- 

 ological collections, especially those from the Swiss lakes, and 

 visited various prehistoric stations of Switzerland. Tlie rude 

 dressings of the pile-ends were in some cases evidently made 

 with sharp stone implements, recalling the cuts I had seen on the 

 wooden stake-ends in northern Delaware. Since 1880 I have 

 quietly examined the spot, excavating the few wooden ends that 

 remained, preserving several that did not fall to pieces. 

 Careful notes were made of the dredgings and excavations. 

 These operations were carried on at low tide. The work was 

 conducted principally by myself, aided at times by interested 

 friends. The results, so far (1877), ^eem to indicate that the 

 ends of piles embedded in the mud, judging from the implements 

 and other debris scattered around thein, had once served as sup- 

 ports to structures intended for fish- weirs, these in all probability 

 projecting a few feet above the water, and were no doubt inter- 

 laced with wattles, or vines, to more readily bar the passage of 



