28 À The American Naturalist. [January, 
joiner work is simpler than working from the solid, will not 
be accepted on this side of the Atlantic, and any farmer’s boy 
would laugh at such a suggestion even in England if he 
believed it to be seriously made. ` It is difficult to imagine 
how Mr. Read can suppose a chair with back and legs could 
be made out of wood by joining more easily than from the 
solid, if he thinks for one moment of the boring and mortising 
necessary in joiner work. Not only the operation but also the 
tools used in joiner work are more complicated than in carving 
from the solid. 
It is a pleasure to hear Mr. Read express his preference to 
speak of paleolithic man in Europe, for in America the 
friends of paleolithic man have with few exceptions deserted 
the proposition as an unsupportable theory. 
Mr. Read asserts that the writer’s “ views ” are ata variance 
with that of others, and says: “ Paleolithic implements are 
made chiefly of flint and quartz;” this is one of the great 
troubles, for if an igneous, granular or metamorphic stone is 
found ground into an implement, European archeologists 
insist that the article is neolithic, apparently not appreciating 
that the stones enumerated cannot be chipped. Flint imple- 
ments require chipping; cliorite, on the other hand, requires 
battering. 
The writer advisedly speaks of “stone” for the subject of the 
paper is stone and not flint as Mr. Read would have it. The 
writer’s assertion is plain and is repeated, the process of batter- 
ing a material is simpler than the process of chipping a material. 
The writer regrets that “it sebms inconceivable that such 
a statement could be calmly made, seeing how entirely 
contrary it is not only to the experience of all who have tried 
the experiment, with the single exception of Mr. McGuire, 
but also in direct opposition to all the evidence on the 
subject.” Mr. Read is here again decidedly confused in his 
mechanical methods and information, for until the writer 
demonstrated the process of battering, and showed it to be 
common to the whole world, it was declared to be a problem 
in archeology that was unsolved and not demonstrable, there- 
