. 
1000 The American Naturalist. [December, 
“had knives with which he could cut various articles and 
needles with which to sew; he knew the art of making and 
burning pottery ; could and did make fire; he drilled holes of 
large and small size in bones, antlers, shells and fossils, and 
was familiar with the art of engraving at a period contempor- 
aneous with the Mousterian implement and a quaternary 
fauna. With such evidence can it be argued that man was 
ignorant of a knowledge of the process by which stone was 
battered and ground in to shape and yet familiar with the 
more complicated art of chipping?” 
On the other side I would put the man of the eighteenth 
eentury. He was familiar with the learning of two thousand 
years preceding his own time; he knew and practised the art 
of printing ; he was an accomplished chemist and astronomer ; 
he was an admirable artist in painting, sculpture and music; 
was a student of the forces of nature; traversed the whole 
world for the improvement of his mind or the bettering of his 
fortunes; he was expert in the beautifying of his every day 
surroundings of furniture and the accessories of a luxurious 
home. With such evidences should it not be argued with far 
greater force that he must have known that under the lid of 
his boiling tea-kettle, a utensil of daily use, lay a force that 
would carry him over land or sea five times more swiftly than 
the swiftest horse? Yet it is remarkable that he never thought 
of the application of the power of steam. 
One word about the “ purely archeological standpoint.” 
This seems, in Mr. MeGuire's view, to resolve itself into “the 
character and size of the chips detached appearing identical 
as do the so-called implements when laid one beside the other; " 
for, on the same page, he says, “ Taking the type of the imple- 
ment as a criterion of antiquity, America, Europe and Asia 
stand on the same footing.” This, however, is the most dan- 
gerous criterion that could be taken. Even in Europe where 
the material used and the character of the sites are nearly 
alike, the type of implement alone is by no means a certain 
indication of age. I have seen hundreds of undoubted neo- 
lithic implements of far ruder work than an ordinary imple- 
ment from the drift. And there is every reason why it should 
