552 The American Naturalist. [June, 
revolutionized, and that paleolithic man in both Europe and North 
America is a myth. The great collections of paleoliths of the 
turtle-back and Chelléen types they look upon as cores and rejects of 
pieces from which better implements have been made and taken away. 
This view leads them to look with suspicion on the alleged discoveries 
of glacial man, and Mr. Holmes has accordingly written articles dis- 
crediting the finds described in Dr. Wright’s book. 
It may be remarked apropos of the observations of Messrs 
Holmes and Maguire, that though it may be true that pecked and 
ground implements are more easily made than well chipped flints 
their actual relations in time can only be ascertained by stratigraphic 
and paleontologic research. A flint broken once or twice so as to pro- 
duce an edge is more easily made than a neolith, and gives a great 
deal better edge, so that such implements may very probably have 
antedated the latter, while the finer ones are well-known to have been 
neolithic, and have been made up to the present day. The question 
is however, not which implement ought to have come first, but which 
actually did come first. 
As regards the finds in Europe, those of the caves are the result of 
so much careful investigation, and are characterized by such satisfac- 
tory stratigraphic conditions, that they cannot be impeached by obser- 
vations made in this country. The paleoliths and human bones 
have been conclusively shown to belong to the age of the glacial 
fauna. In North America the paleontologic evidence is not 50 
good, but such as there is, indicates strongly that the earliest known 
American was not more modern than the paleolithic European. 
Those who saw the Calaveras skull when first found, allege that it was 
more or less covered with the adherent cement so characteristic of the 
gold bearing gravel of California. The age of this gravel is not 
exactly determinable, since data respecting the finding of fossils in it 
are not generally reliable. But that it is of approximately glacial age no 
one doubts. Mr. Holmes believes that the implements of the Abbott and 
Babbitt finds occur only in the talus, and are not from the undisturbed 
glacial gravels (American Geologist) ; but so far as regards part 
Babbitt, and all of the Abbott finds, other observers hold a different 
opinion. In the Journal of Geology he shows that the evidence for the — 4 
stratigraphic position of the finds at Madisonville and Newcomerstown, 
Ohio, is defective. It may be added here that the Nampa image, . 
whatever may be its real stratigraphic origin, displays in its form 9 
artistic skill on the part of its maker, not to be looked for in primitive © 
man ; nevertheless it is time that the name of the person who ates™ 
of the 
Werte Nia on sa eee ee 
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