PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. xv 



To discredit the discoveries at Trenton and New- 

 comerstown, Mr. Holmes relies largely upon the theory 

 that portions of gravel from the surface had slid down to 

 the bottom of the terrace, carrying implements with them, 

 and forming a talus, which, he thinks, Mr. Mills, Dr. Ab- 

 bott, and the others have mistaken for undisturbed strata 

 of gravel. In his drawings Mr. Holmes has even repre- 

 sented the gravel at Newcomerstown as caving down into 

 a talus without disturbing the strata to any great extent, 

 and at the same time he speaks slightingly of the promise 

 which I had made to publish a photograph of the bank as 

 it really was. In answer, it is sufficient to give, first, the 

 drawing made at the time by Mr. Mills, to show the gen- 

 eral situation of the gravel bank at Newcomerstown, in 

 which the implement figured on page 252 was found ; and, 

 secondly, an engraving from a photograph of the bank, 

 taken by Mr. Mills after the discovery of the implement, 

 but before the talus had obscured its face. The imple- 

 ment was found by Mr. Mills with its point projecting 

 from a fresh exposure of the terrace, just after a mass, 

 loosened by his own efforts, had fallen away. The gravel is 

 of such consistency that every sign of stratification disap- 

 pears when it falls down, and there could be no occasion 

 for a mistake even by an ordinary observer, while Mr. 

 Mills was a well-trained geologist and collector, making 

 his notes upon the spot.* 



I had thought at first that Mr. Holmes had made out 

 a better case against the late Miss Babbitt's discoveries at 

 Little Falls (referred to on page 254), but in the American 

 Geologist for May, 1894, page 363, Mr. Warren Upham, 

 after going over the evidence, expresses it as still his con- 

 viction that Mr. Holmes's criticism fails to shake the force 

 of the original evidence, so that I do not see any reason for 

 modifying any of the statements made in the body of the 



* The Popular Science Monthly, vol. xliii, pp. 29-39. 



