Abbott.] 100 [October 18, 



As soon as practicable after the disappearance of the water, I 

 went to the gravel exposures as they then were, anticipating 

 interesting "finds." Careful search resulted in finding three 

 chipped pebbles, all in loose gravel, that but two or three days 

 before had been washed from the adjacent bank. The interest 

 centering in them is lessened of course from the fact of their pre- 

 vious position in the gravel being unknown. That they came 

 from the gravel, however, is unquestionable ; there was no other 

 point within reach of the flood, from which they could have 

 been derived. 



One of the three merits a moment's attention. It is evidently 

 an implement, although the smallest I have found, as yet, in the 

 gravel. It is oval, or nearly so, chipped to an edge along the 

 entire circumference, and finally has been rolled until its original 

 shape has been much modified — subsequently, it has been 

 exposed to the atmosphere until the entire surface has been 

 weathered to a marked degree — then, it has been caught up by 

 the floods derived from the melting of the glaciers, and deposited 

 in the gravels, where lately found. 



This little pebble scarcely showing traces of man's handiwork, 

 is, nevertheless, suggestive of man's antiquity to a marked degree. 

 The implements generally found might readily have been made 

 during the accumulations of the gravel; but here is one that 

 would appear to indicate a still earlier time, coeval with the gla- 

 cial epoch proper and not of its declining days, or of a more 

 remote time even, antedating the Great Ice Age. We must in 

 this case, account for its original chipping ; its rolled condition ; 

 then the protracted weathering ; and lastly, its position in the 

 gravel. 



The tendency of geological investigations of these implement- 

 bearing grounds, has been to render them recent, even archaeolog- 

 ically considered, but the careful study of such objects as this 

 rolled, weather-worn, but clearly artificially- shaped pebble, may 

 possibly lead us farther into the past, and present a glimpse of 

 primeval man, more ancient than we dared to think. This same 

 day, I walked along the line of the gravel as exposed by the rail- 

 road, to a point beyond the limit of the recent flood, and then 

 took, for the thousandth time, a look at the undisturbed deposit. 

 Passing slowly along, I finally noticed what I took to be the point 



