502 GEOLOGY. 



to be attested by fluvial accumulations which have yielded remains 

 of the buffalo, antelope, aoudad, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, and horse. 

 These appear to have belonged to an early stage of the Pleistocene. 

 A later stage is represented by mollusks of existing species, and a 

 mammalian fauna embracing the elephant, buffalo, hippopotamus, 

 urus, antelope, sheep, camel, and horse, a group differing widely in 

 the main from the present occupants of the region. 



Man in the Glacial Period. 



In America. — Previous to the last decade of the last century, no 

 small mass of prehistoric material of human origin had been assembled 

 and somewhat widely accepted as conclusive of man's presence in 

 America in glacial times. The rise of a more critical spirit in archaeo- 

 logic geology and the application of more rigorous criteria have, how- 

 ever, disclosed weaknesses both in the observational authentication 

 and in the interpretation of the material, and all these data have been 

 called into question, with the result that man's antiquity in America 

 is a more open question to-day than it was thought to be fifteen years 

 ago. While the doubts raised bore in some cases upon the human 

 origin of the objects, they lay for the most part against the geological 

 relations assigned them and the archa^ologic interpretations put upon 

 them. 



Prehistoric human relics in America range from the rudest stone 

 chippings and Makings up through various gradations to skillfully 

 fashioned and often polished handiwork in stone, metal, bone, and 

 other material. The relics brought into question were chiefly, though 

 not exclusive^, those of the ruder sort. Following European prec- 

 edent, the earlier students classed the rougher artefacs 1 as paleo- 

 lithic, and interpreted them as indicating the presence of Paleolithic 

 man and of the Paleolithic or Old Stone age in America. The better 

 fashioned artefacs were classed as neolithic, with corresponding refer- 

 ence to the Neolithic or New Stone age. Some investigators very 



1 The term '' artefac " has been coined to designate, in a non-committal way, 

 any object that has been fashioned by man, in any way or for any purpose, or inci- 

 dentally without purpose. It includes stone chips, broken and rejected material, 

 and various forms of by-products, as well as implements, weapons, ornaments, etc. 

 Its special function is to avoid the infelicity of using the words implement, weapon, 

 etc., for objects that may never have been used, or even intended for use. 



