1872.] 143 [Perry, 
a remote past; peat had been deposited in great abundance in many 
portions of the country ; the mammoth, so far as we know, no longer 
roamed the forests; while new animals had been introduced, the 
same perhaps that prevailed in the recion, and were found in it to a 
great extent, when it was first visited by Europeans. 
Just when human beings were introduced we know not. That 
they actually appeared, and were here at an early day, is evident be- 
yond a question. Of the existence of “ aboriginal man” in Connec- 
ticut Prof. Dana finds proof in the shell heaps, which occur at various 
points along the shore. These remains, as he says, “often lie di- 
rectly upon the brown or yellow sand or gravel of the drift formation, 
evincing that the Indian inhabited the plains before the alluvium had 
been covered with, or converted at top into, soil... . They carry 
back the appearance of man in the region to the commencement of 
the Terrace”! period. Let us look at these words that we may see 
just what they legitimately imply. The “gravel of the drift forma- 
tion,” on which these shell heaps are occasionally found, needs no 
further comment. Substantially the same is true of the accompany- 
ing “brown or yellow sand”; it is sometimes known as modified drift, 
and is usually a terrace formation, in the restricted sense of the word 
“terrace.” Inthe vicinity of New Haven these deposits were already 
' in place at the close of the Ice, or in the early part of the Terrace, 
period. No valid proof has been as yet discovered that any marine 
terraces were laid down in the New Haven region. Thus, so far as 
satisfactory evidence goes, the shell heaps appear to rest, for the 
most part, if not altovether, on deposits of the closing ice, or of the 
earlier terrace times. But more than this; they lie directly upon 
them; they were placed where they are found, before the surface of 
the modified Drift had been converted into soil — before vegetation 
had to any great extent, or for a very long while, clothed the land 
after the Glacial period. Accordinely, there being no evidence that 
the New Haven region was submerged, none that it was not above 
the ocean at the very opening of the Terrace period, we see that these 
traces of man may, and, so far as we can judge from their position, 
actually do reach back almost to its beginning. 
But how long ago was that? JI answer, Ido not know. Still if 
any one be curious to examine the evidence, which has a bearing on 
the question, I would refer him in part to the elements already sug- 
gested, and from point to point hinted at, in this paper. These may 
1 Paper cited, p. 108. 
