THE 
“AMERICAN NATURALIST. 
VoL. x.— FEBRUARY, 1876. — No. 2. 
INDICATIONS OF THE ANTIQUITY OF THE INDIANS 
OF NORTH AMERICA, DERIVED FROM A STUDY OF 
THEIR RELICS. 
BY DR. C. C. ABBOTT. 
‘THE stone implements of the Indian long since lost in the 
chase, broken in the conflict, or discarded when metals were 
introduced, as we now gather them up singly or by the score, 
seem to give us no clew to those most interesting of all.questions 
connected with them, When were the first of these stone imple- 
ments shaped? How many centuries have passed since the 
Indian first reached our shores, and armed himself with these 
tude weapons? 
That isolated specimens of relies, however occurring, should be 
valueless in this respect is quite natural, considering the many 
“rcumstances which might arise to place single implements in 
the most unlooked-for places ; but on the other hand, when an 
opportunity is had of securing nearly the entire series of relics 
left by a departed race in a single locality, and of examining 
them, not simply on the shelves of a cabinet, but as they lie upon 
and in the ground, then there is an opportunity afforded of gath- 
ering facts concerning them other than the extent of their varia- 
tion in shapes and uses ; and particularly may we learn something 
of the relationship they bear to each other with reference to the 
vexed question of their antiquity. 
In previous articles in this journal (vol. vi.) I have briefly 
called attention to the vast numbers of relics found in Central 
ew Jersey, and drawn a distinction between the ruder and the 
More elaborate forms, considering the former strictly paleolithic 
implements ; but that from this stage of culture to that of the 
Polished stone age there had been an unchecked development, a 
stadual merging of the one into the other condition. Subsequent 
2 eager neem 
Copyright, A. 8. PACKARD, Jr. 1876, 
