IMPLEMENTS IN THE RIVER DRIFT AT TRENTON, N. J. 205 
spec’ men of strangely shaped stone, that appears to be an ‘‘ imple- 
ment” may be looked upon perhaps, very doubtfully, as establish- 
ing the facts that it is a stone that has been so shaped by human 
hands; or if so that it is of the same date as the containing bed 
of river drift. Such doubts, we confess, passed through our mind 
as we dug out from a gravelly bluff or hillside, then being re- 
moved, the specimen to which we would first call attention, but 
before describing it we will. mention the characteristic features of _ 
_the gravel bank itself, as it was when this specimen was found. 
The physical geography of the locality is very nearly as follows : 
The south bank of the Assunpink Creek, where the stream empties 
into the river, was originally a high gravelly bank, having its 
greatest elevation at the mouth of the stream, and gradually dis- 
appearing as it extended up the stream, or in an easterly direction, 
almost, at this point, at right angles with the river. The northern 
shore sloped gradually to the creek; the high ground being a full 
half mile from the stream 
As we pass down the river shore, on the New Jersey side, we 
find the same grayelly bluff reappearing at the river side, after a 
stretch of lower and meadow-like land, now all built upon; and 
this river side bluff, after extending a distance down the stream of 
half a mile, suddenly leaves the river, trends eastward, and leaves 
between it and the river, the extent of meadows that is indicated 
by the dotted portion of the map 
On this meadow, and in the uplands above (see map), and also 
in the graves in the hillside dividing the two sections of meadow 
and upland, are found the thousands of “relics” such as we have 
described somewhat in detail in vol. vı, of this journal. The. 
Specimens that are more particularly described in this paper were 
found in the bluffs, at those points where the word “ bluff” is 
printed on the map. At these two points, the river on the one 
hand, and “ city improvements” on the other, have exposed the 
hillsides and made such sections of them as enable the observer 
Specimens, however, are not true drift implements, inasmuch as they are also found 
“pon the si tye: ordinary “ ee relics,” and when found in gravel, 
it is nearer the su rface’ of th und and in such position as renders it possible that ` 
may have gradually roki DA to the a at which i ey occur. Ofthe age, as 
a class, however, of these rude magne = we maintain that they are much older than 
finely worked “ relics” which a cept when in graves, strictly surface-found 
implements; that is, stone Bs tas Prine and lost previous to, and at the date 
, the arrival of European settlers; who introducing metals, —— iron, made the 
Stone weapons of the Red man comparatively of little value 
