2 The American Naturalist. : [January, 
ther to testify to the long continuance of the work of disinte- 
gration, and preclude, in Mr. Claypole’s opinion, the fear of 
“ doctoring” as by any of the artificial processes used to pat- 
inate or age flints in England and France. 
On the other hand, further data furnished by Masterman 
and fairly cited by Mr. Claypole invite doubt. Masterman is 
a collector who has been gathering specimens for the last ten 
years “at various depths in the gravel” without having made 
the fact generally known to archeologists, namely: a green 
stone celt, not much leached, five feet deep in the clay, in 1889 ; 
a green stone axe, somewhat leached, in 1882, seven feet deep in 
the gravel; a partly finished celt, not leached, chipped, and a 
little polished, in 1895, marked “ 13 ft. deep in the gravel ;” 
large chipped shovel-shaped blade of veined slate, found by Mr. D. 
White, on July 14, 1884, five feet deep in the gravel, and 
given to Mr. Masterman; a spear-head of red flint, found at a 
depth of seven feet while denn another well, together with 
other specimens believed by their discoverer to be of glacial 
age, while it is further stated that in the well where the axe 
in question was found Masterman had previoúsly unearthed 
at a considerable depth in the gravel a small arrow or spear- 
point of white stone. 
If the gravel deposit at New London is really glacial drift, 
and if the objects enumerated above have been found in it in 
situ, let us hope that further discoveries will follow as they have 
followed the first findings at the important drift beds of Europe. 
Let us hope that Mr. Claypole has prepared Mr. Masterman . 
for a temporary preservation of the records in future, and for 
the calling in of witnesses, while it may be supposed that not a 
few archeologists would gladly sieze the opportunity of hurry- 
ing to New London on wire, to see an exposure of the gravel 
where one or more signs of human handiwork could be shown 
protruding from the stratified drift, or where, as at Caddington 
or Hoxne, Chelles, Amiens or Abbeville the discovery of other 
such objects could be reasonably guaranteed. Should the evi- 
dence become generally satisfactory we need not be trou- 
bled because the object thus found in American driftis polished, 
while all blades of human handiwork till now procured from 
LPE AR ae Ee A Ee iy Be ee 
