874 The American Naturalist. [November, 
from rendering to him the credit for his new mode of investi- 
gation, it being the same I had chiefly pursued during my 
residence in Europe. 
Synopsis of the points made in opposition to Mr. Holmes’ 
theories. 
1. I concede that Mr. Holmes made a faithful and correct 
report of his excavations at Piney Branch and of the objects 
he found there, and I take no exceptions to that part of his 
paper. 
2. But I except to his conclusions. I propose to show that 
his conclusions are erroneous and that the pretended facts 
(outside the quarry), on which he based these conclusions, are 
not facts but assumptions. 
3. I propose to show that the objects which he calls “ shop- 
refuse” and which as such should only be found in quarries 
and on shop-sites, have been equally wide-spread as are the 
finished implements which he declares to have been the sole 
aim of the workman in opening the quarry. 
4. I propose to show the leaf-shaped implements which he 
calls “blanks” and which he says were merely material pre- 
pared at the quarry for convenience of transportation and to 
be worked into implements, were themselves finished imple- 
ments, well-known and commonly used throughout the world 
in prehistoric times for spears, knives, daggers, etc., with and 
without handles; and sometimes put to secondary uses, as all 
other implements might be when broken or the need for their 
use had passed. 
5. I propose to examine the aboriginal village-sites of the 
District and its neighborhood, in search of the leaf-shaped 
blades or “blanks” which Mr. Holmes so confidently asserts 
were carried from the quarry to “ other fields” and for other 
*“ destinies,” and I will show that the number treated as he says, 
was insignificant when compared with the material procured 
and the work done. 
6. I propose to show the number of caches in the neighbor- 
hood to be insignificant; then, that the number of leaf-shaped 
blades, “ blanks,” not in caches, was also insignificant ; then, that 
those of quartzite which alone could have come from Piney 
